Do you have a child that bottles up their worries? I have found a way to help thought I would pass it on

[Bartg]

I bought a laminated card with all the emoji of different emotions on it. Angry, sad, happy etc. get them to point at three they felt that day. And see what follows from the chat thereafter. Hope this may help someone else

They do this at my sons school and I think it's really good. They do it at the start of the day and the end and have a bit of a chat about anything that's changed over the course of the day. It's also a good opener for me on the way home if they are being a bit quiet on the way home, I can ask them which emoji they picked today.

Good to hear it works for other children too
maybe everyone else has been doing this for ages ! I just discovered it. Now I know what the worry is , just need to figure out what to do about it

Great idea, thanks for sharing this.

The card has 24 emojis on it. So lots to pick from. He sometimes picks hungry which isn’t the most helpful one !

That's a lot of emojis!

I find the 5 point scale much more useful with mine.

Yeah it maybe doesn’t need so many

I remember they used these in my son's nursery and when he started primary school. Think they were called feelings cards at the time or something like that. It's such a good idea and really effective in opening up communication. Lovely to hear it's working for your little one too.
We had a little set attached to a keyring that we carried around with us when we were out and about too if that would work for you.

Where do you buy these cards?

I got the kids2learn feelings and emoji cards. But Amazon has lots of others

DD and a few of her friends have Worry Monsters. They write their worries down and the Monster munches it up (ie parent reads worry when child is asleep and makes paper disappear). I think there'll come an age where I feel that doing this is invading her privacy but by then she'll have sussed out that I'm looking at them and might still choose to use it knowing that she can get a message to me that way.

Younger children, or children who want more privacy, can be encouraged to whisper their worries to a little worry doll or similar.

I used to ask mine for something that had made them happy that day and something that made them upset/sad/unhappy. When they could write, I'd get them to write it down. My daughter is now an adult and still writes in her diary every day, based on the fact she found she could get everything out of her system by writing it down, while reminding herself to focus on what had gone well, too.

That's a great idea! I got an octopus for each child from Claire's accessories that is either happy or sad and i get the kids to flip it to which mood they're in. I always ask why they feel that way whatever way it's flipped, sometimes they say 'just because" or "I don't want to talk about it" and that's respected.

We did the 'tell me one good thing and one not so good thing about your day' around the dinner table. We all had a turn and it helped discuss so difficult topics, but then some fun ones as well.

It also helps for children to understand that adults have a tough day as well and how they dealt with it.

I used the worry toy (eats written messages) when my DD was young, she found it helpful for a few months when she was stressed about school. She also finds writing in a journal helpful. She is 16 now and sitting her GCSE’s, the other night she was getting stressed and I did the put the worry into your hands and pass it to me, it’s my worry now thing. She still finds stuff like that helpful. She also loved going to sleep with a story cd playing for years and years. Paddington Bear stories, pleasant stuff. She is a high achiever, never had a detention or late homework, straight A student. I am lazy and laid back! I sometimes wonder if it’s this sort of child who is prone to worrying? She doesn’t use social media at all which I think helps to keep her calm.

We do this too and I think it's helpful. Everyone takes a turn, including DH and I.

I used to ask my dd what was your best thing about today and what would you like to change?

That worked quite well. I started doing it as I’d noticed she would use bed time as an opportunity to complain to her dad who would give her lots of attention for it when he wouldn’t normally.

These are all great ideas I am going to try