How To Help Your Child Manage Their Mental Health in the Back-to-School Season

The back-to-school season can mean a range of emotions for children and their parents, from excitement and happiness to anxiety and stress. Parents can help their teens manage their mental health (and their own!) during this transitional time to help ensure they start the school year right. 

Help Your Teen Manage Their Mental Health and Anxiety

The start of school brings excitement and anticipation as students get to see old friends and meet new ones. They begin working with new teachers and start new routines. But the very things that excite them can also cause stress and nervousness. They may wonder if they will still fit in with friends or whether things will be socially different this year. Maybe they will worry about getting a strict teacher or feeling pressured by academics. 

As a parent, look for signs of stress and anxiety that your young person may be showing. Signs can range from trouble sleeping to sadness, mood swings, irritation, or even anger. Maybe they are withdrawing a bit or complaining of stomach aches or headaches. Let them know you want them to help you understand what they are feeling. Whatever they tell you, validate that it’s natural to have a range of emotions during transitions and it’s even possible to feel happy and anxious at the same time! 

Try to help them stay calm about fears they may have and tell them you’re there to support them all year long. Encourage them to express their feelings and concerns by asking them about their biggest worries or stressors. You could even suggest they write down one worry about the next day before bed to take it out of their head. It can be helpful to look at this list a month later and help them see how many worries came true and how many worries were just feelings they had in the moment. Help them determine what may trigger their concerns. There are plenty of things you can actively do to help keep them in their best mental and physical health. 

Ways to Help Ensure a Smooth Back-to-School Transition and Minimize Stress

Build different routines. Summertime means different routines for kids than the rest of the year. Sleeping in or staying up late don’t have the same consequences. There’s little to no homework to do. So, before getting back into the swing of things, establish some new routines. That could mean packing lunch or choosing clothes the night before, having them read a book before going to sleep, or putting the phone down during meals.

Look at current sleep habits and change sleep schedules. If school starts early, get an old-fashioned alarm clock to avoid keeping a phone by the bed as an alarm. Keeping a phone nearby can lead to unhealthy late-night scrolling. Discourage them from looking at the phone first thing in the morning. Doing so can trigger stress or make it hard to concentrate on morning routines. 

Create healthy homework habits. Establish a good place to study or get homework done. It can be within the home or outside, at places like the local library. Try to prioritize getting homework done shortly after school finishes. While it’s not necessarily something fun, it helps to do it while it’s fresh in their minds. And it could end up being more stress-inducing if it’s not done until later. 

Set new limits to help manage time and logistics. Work together to agree on limits around time spent online, playing video games, or using the phone or other digital devices. Try to avoid overscheduling of activities early in the school year to keep from feeling overwhelmed. 

Encourage new connections. Have your teen put down their phone and make connections IRL. Let them catch up with old school friends. But also suggest they try to meet new people. You never know when they may meet a new bestie! 

Prepare your child to fail. Let them know it’s okay to do so. Everyone fails in life sometimes. Failure lets us learn from our mistakes.

Bring on Some Joy 

As the school year gets underway, encourage your children to build new, “small habits” that bring them joy. Have them consider options that require a small time commitment and have nothing to do with school or academics. Set up at least five minutes of happy moments that can be enjoyed before school to set them off right or after school so they have something to look forward to at home. It could be anything they love, a video game, a few pages in a book, a short jog around the block, meditating, working on an art project, playing music, playing ball – the list goes on. 

Don’t forget, back-to-school can be an emotional and stressful time for parents as well! So, don’t hesitate to integrate some of these tips into your parenting life.