Difficult Conversations

Let’s acknowledge that things are hard right now. We are surrounded by news updates and people’s opinions and commentaries on social media. It is hard to know how much or how little to share with children of all ages, especially when we aren’t sure about our own feelings. The last thing any of us wants is to make things more difficult so we might shy away from hard, confusing, emotional conversations.

However, there are three very important reasons to be open to difficult conversations.

1. 1. Talking about our feelings is important to our mental health. We don’t have to have all the answers. We can listen to each other, ask questions, be willing to share our own thoughts and feelings as the starting point to conversations.
2. 2. Information is everywhere. Children need help to put things into perspective and to make sense of all that they hear and see.
3. 3. This is an opportunity for adults to be positive role models to the younger generation about facing hard truths by listening to others’ perspectives, standing up for what you believe in, and checking the validity of information and sources.

Click for advice from The Thrive Initiative about approaching conversations.  Visit our SEL page for more on this and other topics.