Stress Management

If you saw Inside Out 2 over the summer, then you know that Anxiety is the main antagonist but not necessarily the villain. The film does a great job explaining this complex emotion and why it has a notable presence in our kids today. Being former gifted kids, we’ve definitely felt academic anxiety in high school; but is this really occurring for our elementary kids?

Fears and worry are typical for kids as they grow and experience the world, especially when it comes to school. A 2023 survey reported that 86% of school-aged children worry, mostly on a regular basis (once a week or more), with majority of their concerns (64%) being school-related.

Although the term anxiety has become a catch-all for any emotion related to apprehension or unease, it’s helpful to know the variations and their differences:

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*Photo credit: A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)*

Moms don’t en-joy, they give joy. That’s how being a mom works. – A Bad Moms Christmas

Thanksgiving starts a mad rush all the way through December. While we can’t speak for other religions and their traditions, Christmas has a chokehold on an entire month; bringing festivities, expectations, and Mariah Carey.

This onslaught includes: hours making and checking shopping lists, wrapping the gifts, sending out cards, decking the halls, baking the cookies, making the travel plans, and keeping the spirit of Christmas alive. And year after year, the person behind all of this isn’t Santa. It’s mom.

Why do we do this? Is it a rite of passage to level up as a mom? Is the expectation the same for dads? With a few weeks left before December 25^th, let’s get to the bottom of this quandary and how we can alleviate this self-inflicted stress.

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