A change is coming. Your child has noticed this and understands that soon summer will bring huge and often wonderful changes to the normal routines. It’s good-bye to comfortable classmates and teachers and hello to family summer plans.
Is your child showing some different behavior at home lately? Welcome to the club. Children often react to the stress of change – even positive change – by unconsciously retesting limits and possibly reverting to an earlier developmental stage for a short while.
If you think this is happening to your child, I suggest you patiently show your child that the limits haven’t changed. Gently but firmly, your child needs to know that he or she must still live up to responsibilities and expectations. See if you can do this in an unemotional and reassuring manner.
Parents can help their children work through the stress caused by changes by maintaining routines and making extra time to listen to a child’s concerns and comments. Plenty of rest resulting from a normal bedtime is helpful to your child. This can be hard when other children (perhaps with less enlightened parents) are playing noisily outside or sports schedules keep your child up later than usual. If your family is not able to have dinner together nightly, this might be a good time to begin a family book or other ritual that gives the family a chance to be together and talk over the joys and frustrations of the day. Talking over the feelings and problems of the characters in a book can give your family an extra feeling of togetherness.
When spring brings changes and stress to your child, you can show your child that the family is a secure and normal place.
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