04/10/2024
Happy Children's Day 👣
To all the precious little ones and the child in us all - You are loved, You are valued, You have purpose and significance, You are a gift to the world, You are enough !!
As you treasure your children today remember this is what a child needs :
Safety and Connection are the primary needs of all children. They are like two sides of the same coin -
💑 The need to feel physically safe, in a home and living environment that is not physically dangerous or threatening, causes fear or stress. Consistent and adequate basic needs such food, shelter, clothing and education
💑 Emotional safety - consistently experiencing warm and loving parental relationships that are unconditionally accepting, non judgmental. A space where all emotions and experiences can be felt and expressed - a space for a child to be their authentic self.
💑 Stable, consistent and predictable connection - a bond with parents/significant others where a child feels seen and understood, even when they don't understand themselves, they can look into the emotional mirror of these relationships which help them to make sense of themselves.
💑Emotional regulation is a key feature of safe connections characterised by parents who are attuned to what's happening for their child, can help to facilitate expression of emotions, to name, make sense of and provide coping mechanisms.
💑 Apart from regulating emotions safe and healthy connections involve seeing and supporting other aspects of a child's development such as body (nutrition, hormones, physical wellbeing etc), mind (unique aspects to how this child thinks, learns and needs stimulation etc), and spirit (beliefs, values, sense of purpose and meaning)
It sounds like a tall order when most of us parents are wounded children ourselves but awareness and conscious parenting helps us to pay attention to and heal our own childhood needs so that we can in turn show up in the way that our kids need us most!
