Do you talk to your children about emotional wellbeing? Share with the GDST for a chance to win a £300 John Lewis voucher

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There’s been a huge change over the years in how we speak out mental health, and it’s becoming more and more apparent that we need to be educating our children about their emotional wellbeing as well. The Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), a family of 25 schools across the UK, would like to hear your views on how we can help children to be happy and feel good in the world.

What do you think affects your children's mental health and how do you talk to them about it? Do you think exam pressure or even entrance exams cause your children stress? Does social media affect your children? Do they talk to you about their emotions or do you approach the topic of mental health if you see them struggling? Do you think mental health and wellbeing should be discussed and taught in schools?

Please share how you talk to your children about their emotional wellbeing and you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list).

Thanks

MNHQ

Terms and conditions apply

I find myself listening more to the children with emphasis on casual conversations & not a one to one interrogation style as they clam up.

We discuss our emotions a lot as a family. I try to help my boys label their feelings and be aware of how their reactions to their feelings effect themselves and others.

I've also been transparent about my feelings with my children. By telling them in a child appropriate way how i feel, they can see that everyone experiences a range of emotions, and it enables me to model positive coping strategies.

DC2 is only 3 and I was impressed the nursery recognised mental health day and they spoke about how it was ok to feel sad sometimes, but that talking to a grown up can really help.

Yes - I think it is really important to talk to children from a young age about their feelings, and to acknowledge them so that they understand it is OK to feel like that, that other people feel like that sometimes, and help them deal with those feelings.

I try to discuss feelings with my small child with mixed results. I do think it's important though as I tend to bottle everything up so I really needed more education on this. I am great at empathy with other people's emotions but not so good at recognising my own and expressing them in a healthy way.

Having regular talks with your child/children about how they are feeling and even asking how their day has been can give an insight into their emotional wellbeing. We often have talks at the dinner table (when we are eating) and you can gauge whenther they are upset or stressed out about something.

Mine are too young, but it's such an important topic that should be brought into conversations pretty early. Meaningful conversations with each other are really important and the best way to help identify if there are any issues or concerns.

I try very hard to model it but I don’t think I’m doing a good job. We talk, a lot. They are encouraged to discuss their feelings and we talk about ways to make things feel better.

My DD is too young at the moment, but I think it is good to be open and talk about things like this, especially because I have suffered from mental health problems in the past.

My daughter is still only really little, but I try and encourage her to express her emotions.

Oh yes. As a parent I have been through depression/anxiety disorders so when DS started displaying the same traits, I could recognise them. We talk a lot about his emotions and I tell him it is ok to feel negative things like anger and frustration and not to punish himself over it and accept it. We practice breathing and mindfulness and help him to focus on the here and now and not focus on the chitter chatter that goes on in repeat in your mind. Accept it, but let it go. I also tell him that the chitter chatter in his mind are only thoughts and thoughts cannot harm him as they are not real events.

I absolutely talk to my son about how he feels, and I will when my daughter is older too. It is so so important in my view that children grow and learn that it’s ok to talk to their parents about difficult feelings. That will only come if you show your children that they can talk about feelings.

I watch my children carefully for change in mood so that I can gently intervene by talking about what there thoughts are and if anything is troubling them. I have always encouraged them to talk about how they are feeling about School, relationships and general worries should they arise.

I've attended mental health first aider courses to ensure i can support my child however possible. We are very open about our feelings to each other and they know they can talk to us about anything

It's important to talk about feelings and we always encourage this in our family, but I think there is also a danger that you can put ideas into children's heads that may not actually be there

I always ask my two children how they feel, if theyre ok and if anythings bothering them, we are really close and I would like to think Id know by a change in their behavior if something was different, or bothering them. I always try to be as open as I can and ask them to do the same.

I would love to do this when my daughter is older and able to understand, at the moment I ask her how she's feeling and how her day when and she answers me as best she can

watching my daughter deal with the death of grandad at 5, not knowing if she understands, how she deals with it, and whether she wants to talk etc. WE just keep talking through, being honest and open

My DS are teens and they are so open about mental health and emotional well being. I have always tried to be open and honest about them, we talk about emotions, reactions, ways of coping but also recognising the feelings that they have. They are generally very aware, the school has been really good with its PHSE provision and they have a really good dialogue with their friends too. We are very lucky, I know.

I find the best way is to let them try to work out their own emotions and if they seem upset to give them the opportunity to open up, spend time talking but don't pry too much, the more you question the more that children can clam up and become unresponsive. I find my children don't like to feel forced into giving answers but sometimes just like to tell us in their own way and in their own time. Sometimes they may not come to me but to a teacher, or their uncles/aunties. It doesn't matter as long as they know they can.

I do but it’s something I do every day through discussion and experience rather a sit down discussion.

I think something is important as mental health and wellbeing should continuously be spoke about and not only then is it something not to be scared or worried by but it normalises speaking out about our emotions and feelings, which when raising 3 girls is very important to me.

In short, not as much as I feel we should. It's a subject which it is easy to shy away from because we somehow feel uncomfortable at what others might say. Equally, those suffereing are loathe to seek help and understanding from their own family members for fear of being seen as weak or needy.

Emotional well-being is critical to our being able to lead a happy and fulfilling life so we should all do more.

Our children are growing up in a difficult world and social media has a lot to answer for. I really believe that together with mobile phones they cause a huge amount of pressure on our childrens' mental health.

But I am realistic and know that this is the world they grow up in and you can only support and try and do your best to put things in perspective.

We do talk and I know when my DDs are not themselves and I try and be there for them. I encourage them to talk to each other (not always the best idea!) and if they cannot talk to me , text me as they find this easier than face to face.

Whilst schools have progressed hugely in their teaching and support you cannot get away from the fact that they deal with hundreds of children and cannot be there for every one of them.

I try to encourage my daughter to talk about her feelings.