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Helping your child during the current situation in the Middle East
By Dr Judith Locke and Dr Danielle Einstein (Clinical Psychologists)
In a time when your child may be exposed to horrific images of terrorist activities, how can you reduce the risk? Here are some short tips for parents.
Talking to your child and managing their social media
This morning, the situation peaked with terrorists releasing video footage on social media too horrific for words. Thus, if your child is on social media they are likely to be exposed to this footage.
To overcome this, parents need to set up boundaries. Protect them from the anxiety and distress elicited by images and heartbreaking stories.
If they are young. Don’t be afraid to turn off their phone or tablet now. This is sensible. You could say that there is some awful stuff on social media right now and you want to protect them. Only say this, if you know that it will not ignite curiosity in them. Remember you are the parent, you can take technology off them. Instead if you have the time, do something fun as a family like play a board game or take a walk to get everyone an ice-cream.
