Do you remember being a little kid, excited about going to this big place where all your friends are? It is a place of multiple buildings or maybe just one, a library and even a cool playground. A place to be able to run and make believe with your friends. A school, a second place to call home and spend the next 5 days learning about the world. But are schools and society doing enough to help our children? In education, I would like to think so. What about in their health, especially focusing on mental health? This is where I feel society needs to do better for our kids.
WHAT’S BEST
As a parent, I know many parents would also agree that we want the absolute best for our kids. We want them happy, healthy and to enjoy life. Because nothing is better than seeing your child laughing and playing. We want to protect them from all things bad and only show them the good sides of life. Is that reasonable? Are we just setting up our kids for more hurt in the long run? Raising a child is extremely hard. Parenting a child, trying to do right by them as well as teach them the ways of the world is very daunting. You want them to grow up strong and wise but protect them, so they don’t have to be worried or scared.
There is no perfect way to raise a child. The best we can do as parents, is to walk the path they do and teach them as best as we can. Is it enough? I don’t know. But more and more children are suffering with mental health matters that maybe we need to relook at our paths.
SCHOOLS (NOT) HANDLING BULLING
I remember very clearly, being in second grade at my elementary school. I was already the shy little blond girl with only a friend or two. As well as being also a little heavier than the other kids. There was one day that another little girl decided that I was not doing something she liked, and she grabbed my shirt and pushed me into the chain link fence by the playground. The shove was not what really bothered me. When she grabbed my shirt, she grabbed some of my skin too. I cried and told the teacher. She was told to apologize and that was that.
That was the start of years of bullying in my life. From then until the end of junior high school, kids always found a way to tease me about something. I found myself in a depression that lasted for 6 years. Don’t get me wrong. I broke free from my depression and started seeing my life in a much brighter view. Then met my husband and had our son. I have had my ups and downs in life. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Do I wish parts of my life were different? At times, yes. But I am also very content and happy with what I have now too.
My history of bullies is just one of so many that kids have endured for so long. I have family that lately had to deal with bullying through social media. How do you handle that? How are the kids supposed to be able to handle a bully they cannot see?
TEACHERS AND STUDENTS VIEWS
I have been truly fortunate to be a part of a family with both teachers and students; not to mention I have friends that are teachers as their children continue through grade school. I have asked them the question, does society need to do better for our kids in school? In schools, the teachers are trying their best. They are responsible for several children each day. They come to respect and admire these kids that pass through their classes. So, these teachers are ones that have a first-hand look (outside of the kids’ parents) into their daily lives and mental health. Many teachers watch very closely, the everyday events of their students’ lives and try their best to help. A hurdle they face is school budgets and school boards. A hurdle that can make getting help difficult.
SCHOOL COUNSELORS
In researching for this week’s post, I found on the American School Counselor Association which states that mandate a counselor at their schools. Discovering that 25 states in the US have a mandate requiring a school counselor onsite for all schools from K-12 was both promising and disconcerting. That also tells me that the other states either have no mandate for any schools or their mandate is for only high school (grades 9-12).
When I spoke to my family and friends, those that have had the opportunity to speak with a school counselor, found them to be coming up short in providing help and information with mental health related issues. As a matter of fact, even the health classes I remember taking and those my family is going through now, lack the topic of mental health.
WHERE TO GO
Where are our children supposed to go if they have questions, concerns or issues with anxiety or depression? I know as I child I had an extremely hard time going to my parents. I love them greatly, but they were busy trying to support my brothers and I. To me at the time, they were adults, and I couldn’t understand how they could help because they were not a kid like me and wasn’t there at the time. Now that I am an adult with a family of my own, I understand better. My kid-like mind back then, didn’t. I had no counselor in my school. I had a nurse for when I was sick. I never saw her as someone I could trust. I didn’t even know her name very well.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND INTERNET
Today’s society, we have social media and the internet. This results in another whole new area of mental health support systems as well as ways for our children to be attacked. The problem I find is we still don’t have too many areas that kids can turn to and get the support they need. Teachers are trying their best and so many turn their own personal lives around just to support their students. Society needs to do better for our kids. Schools need help. Better trained counselors, spending time in a health class to discuss mental health, assemblies to let the class know there are support systems out there, something to show our children that help is available.
ARE SCHOOLS HELPING OUR CHILDREN
As a parent with a child in grade school, mental health issues are dear to my heart. My son is in 1st grade and already had to deal with a bully at school. His teachers did the best they could. Notes to parents, trying to keep the kids separated, can only go so far in helping the situation. At no time was there a talk to the class or the school about bullies.
My family going through high school and beyond are receiving discussions about substance abuse and sex. What they are not receiving are discussions about depression, anxiety, bullies, peer pressure and who or where to go if they need help.
ALWAYS WATCHING
This has opened my eyes to what our children are exposed to and makes me, as a parent, want more for my child. I know I will be watching very closely to my son and to his friends. Because don’t forget, no change will come without making a choice.
With great warmth,
