How Can I Teach My Children To Deal Better With Stress?

— -- Question: How can I teach my children to deal better with stress?

Answer: Helping kids deal with stress is a very important question and I think as a parent you're probably the best teacher for your kid in learning how to cope with stress. Children really watch their parents and see what their parents do. So demonstrating healthy, adaptive ways of coping can really help kids. They'll learn that by watching you.

But in some cases, if you struggle with coping with stress or if your child isn't picking up some of the cues that you're sending, you may actually need to be more explicit with the child. Teaching them how to notice their stress cues, how to monitor and change and adjust, actually doing some things like adding pleasurable activities, improving their sleep and eating.

If you find you need some help with that or your child does, you may also work with a counselor or therapist to get them some additional help -- some additional coaching -- in improving those coping skills.