Parents Who Do These 5 Things Raise Kids Who Feel Safe Coming To Them (Whether They Realize It Or Not)
As a parent, one of the most difficult situations you can experience is when your child expresses loneliness or even tells you, “I don’t have any friends.” Learning how to deal with loneliness can be a struggle for anyone, but when it’s your baby who says they’re feeling lonely and left out, it’s heartbreaking.
You watch as your child trails behind other children at a party. You watch him always on the edge of the group, lurking near children but not fully included with them. You know your child has always struggled with friends, but now his social isolation seems worse.
You come to realize that your child has no one to confide in, no one to share secrets with, and no one to laugh with. Your child comes home one day and tells you he has no one to sit with on the bus. And then your child says the words you have dreaded hearing, “ I have no friends.”
He’s lonely — and you’re crushed. Every child feels left out from time to time, and every parent hears reports about teasing or a party your child isn’t invited to.
As a parent, you know your child, and you have a gut instinct from the first moment you look at them that tells you when your child is in need. And when you watch and see that he is feeling lonely, and you feel the terrible longing to help him and fix this problem, just as you fixed scraped knees, torn stickers, and broken toys. As a parent, you want to help, but dealing with loneliness isn’t a lesson you wanted to ever have to teach them.
Parents who do these five things raise kids who feel safe coming to them, whether they realize it or not:
1. They take a realistic view of their child’s social skills
There are several social skills everyone needs to succeed in life, to manage school, friends, projects, and eventually the workplace. For instance, all research shows that children need to learn to be able to adapt to any social situation, to scan the environment, and then to adjust their behavior to meet the needs of the situation.
Consider assessing your child’s social skills, ask yourself, “Can my child make new friends? Could he join and collaborate with a group?” In order to start helping your child with his loneliness, you must first determine what social skills are holding your child back.