Nothing can truly prepare you to parent during a pandemic, and families all across the world have been forced to do just that. This past year has presented some of the most challenging times for families. Too many have been faced with unimaginable circumstances, impossible decisions to be made, isolation, loss of resources and so much more. Each family has been impacted differently, and each experience is valid in its own right and should not be compared to the next.
Change can add even more complexity to navigating the responsibilities and challenges that parents face when raising child. Sometimes parents may not recognize life transitions as “triggers” for a change in their child’s affect or behavior – and more often then not, children lack the experience, understanding and communication skills to express how they’re feeling. As a result, the fear and uncertainty that your child may be experiencing can manifest as anger, defiance, sadness, or fear.
Conflict can be stressful and leave us doubting ourselves and our relationships. However, just because you may run into challenges, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there is something wrong. In fact, conflict can be an integral part of a healthy relationship because, if managed correctly, it indicates that both partners are asserting themselves and negotiating.
Trauma ingrains painful memories so deeply that they distort the way we think, act, and feel—essentially constricting how we live our lives. Instead of being relegated to the past like most memories, trauma makes the experience a permanent fixture in the mind, a recurring telling of events that repeatedly brings the sensations, sounds, and imagery back into the present.
