How to help your child to deal with trauma and tragedy

Sometimes no matter how much you protect your child, tragedy can struck suddenly. 

These tragedies can be natural disasters, death in a family, mass shooting or terrorist attacks and can be traumatic for little children to deal with it.

As parents you need to talk to your child gently to help them understand and to help them open up about how they are processing such situations. You have to provide them a safe and loving environment for them to feel comfortable to talk about this. 

If you don’t talk with them about what happened then it might cause them to feel neglected and their emotions might come up in ugly ways later. 

You can talk with them and a choose a time where you both can sit down and calmly discuss about the event without any distractions. Wait for your child to answer and these answers will help guide your discussions with them.

Here are some ways you can help your child to deal with trauma and tragedy:-

1- Your child will look at you to see how you react. So try to remain calm and use your head in these situations. If you start screaming or shouting, your child might freak out as well. It’s okay for you to display your emotions in a healthy but if you are feeling something intensely, then excuse yourself to your bedroom so you can cry more freely. 

2- After the event, point out to your child that they are safe with you. Make sure your home is a safe, loving environment for them.

3- Sometimes this tragedy, if it is a school shooting or terrorist attack, can come up in news or social media. Try to limit their exposures to these mediums so they are not constantly thinking about it. 

4- If the tragedy was caused by a person of a particular culture, race or ethnicity, try not to place the blame on their whole group or country. 

5- During tragedies, your child might crave normalcy in their life to feel like everything is okay around them. So try to keep up with your regular family dinners or other traditions.

If you spend every night reading them books then keep doing that so they feel safe with you and can fall asleep peacefully.

You can visit lilamigosnest and check out various books that you can buy to continue your bedtime routine with your child during this tough time. 

6- They might not feel safe after the tragedy so take some days off work and spend some extra time with your child to reassure them and make them feel safe. 

7- Encourage your child to talk about what they are feeling or even write it down so that they know that how they feel is okay and normal. Tell them not to pent up all their emotions inside and it’s okay for them to vent it out to you. 

8- You can be a role model for your child and show how you can help other victims by making donations in a support group or holding a service for the people involved in the tragedy. 

9- If your child goes through something traumatic, then it is important for them to go to therapy where they can talk to someone about it and not feel judged or overwhelmed. It will help them get a fresh point of view from someone other than you. 

10- Observe that your child eats properly, spends time with you and other family members and sleeps week as it will help you determine their mental state after the event. 

Conclusion 

We hope this article helps you and your child to deal with trauma in a healthy manner. Do contact a professional to help you and your child to grieve properly. 

You can even try to find support groups in your community that might have gone through the same tragedy.  

Do visit https://lilamigosnest.com/ if you want to buy any kind of toys for your kids.