No matter what your political affiliation, there is no disputing that we are living in a stressful time. There seem to be endless global conflicts in which people flippantly talk about World War 3, debates about climate change and raging wildfires, and a divided government. The barrage of terrible news—amplified by social media—is enough to put adults on edge.
Don’t forget that your children are on the periphery. They hear our conversations, they talk to their friends at school, and they may be exposed to troubling news that we aren’t even aware they know. As children, they lack the emotional maturity and life experience to comprehend and process this barrage of stressful information. The question that we must ask ourselves as parents is: If we are struggling to cope with current events, how are our children coping?
