The modern day family is faced with many challenges not least the outside world. Family units are often spread across the country if not internationally and the support is not the same as it used to be.
Added to this, the fact that external pressures are now so great that they ripple through the family and can sometimes reach the child before they are even born.
Where centuries ago success was measured by how much harvest you had, and bread and wine was the reward, these days money and material toys are what we are measured against. We cannot fight change and this is the evolution of the world however we can equip our children to deal with the world in a way they feel comfortable with and not what their parents feel they should or could aspire to.
Why are we all constantly under battle to be the perfect person, perfect parent, wife and friend. Where is their time for us to be us too? And what is the Authentic us anyhow??
We are taught that failure is not an option and we must always do our best but when do we give ourselves a chance to find out what ‘our best ‘ is?
Doing your best should be good enough for you and it should be good enough for those around you too. However, all too often we set our targets of our best being slightly too far to reach and we constantly strive that bit more. Nothing wrong with any of that, providing you are able to keep healthy in mind and body whilst you are doing it. The modern world however is seeing more and more of us struggle with our healthy mind and we are too frightened of admitting we need help!
Because of the man eat dog world we live in, we are passing this culture onto our children, often subconsciously. They are learning this is the how they have to survive and we are both passing our fears and blind ambition onto them. Often, we are putting pressure on them to succeed before they have even started possibly setting them up for more failure. One of the by products of this culture is that Mental Health is becoming a more widespread issue and is affecting children of all ages. Mental health is much more recognised today and much more help is available however much of it is environmental and more must be done to help children have the mechanisms themselves to deal with lifes pressures and enable them to understand when to ask for help and where to get it.
