Introduction
Parents find it difficult to handle anxious children all by themselves. It becomes even more challenging when a child is suffering from a state of anxiousness and has siblings. Parents must first counsel the siblings to ensure their children are not in despair. It can be the case that most of the time, without understanding better, siblings push the child facing anxiousness towards depression. It is important to manage and care for both children while encountering tricky situations where the siblings and the anxious kids improve. Here are some pointers that parents should know about encouraging siblings to understand and support their anxious brother or sister.
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Understanding How Siblings Influence Each Other
Many Indian households can witness siblings spending most of their time together. The closer they are to their age cap, the more time they spend due to similar activities and schooling. Even siblings with more significant age gaps tend to influence smaller siblings more complexly. Little siblings with a more substantial age gap than their brothers or sisters will see their siblings as role models. The dependence of siblings on each other can make or break the situation or the state of anxiousness in one of them, making it a mandatory relationship to address when a child is anxious.
What Happens If One Of Them Is Anxious? Addressing Misunderstandings
Here are certain scenarios or situations that can be commonly seen between siblings when one of them is anxious:
- Siblings with a smaller age gap have the same level of IQ. Such siblings may sense sadness in their brother or sister before their parents.
- Not understanding the situation better, siblings might be jealous of the attention and extra care the anxious child is getting.
- Siblings with a higher age gap can misinterpret the anxiousness of the younger siblings as tantrums or stubbornness.
These are some common scenarios with the tricky understanding parents must tackle to create a happy environment and empathy between their children solving the situation.
Reasons Why A Child Is Anxious
Here are some common reasons that trigger anxiety in children that siblings and parents should know about:
- When any kind of insensitivity hurts the children, and this situation continues for an extended period, the child becomes fearful and anxious, feeling isolated.
- Bullying, peer pressure from friends, and societal expectations from others can pressure the kid into a state of anxiousness.
- Constant ignorance can also make children much more anxious about their self-image, creating a state of insecurity and depression.
Many other reasons and numeral factors can cause children to stay in a state of anxiousness and depression. Parents must teach children emotional management and coping mechanisms to avoid the same.
Helping Siblings Understand And Support An Anxious Child
Here are a few tricks to help siblings understand and support an anxious child, creating a safe for brothers and sisters.
1. Encourage Empathy
Empathy means when the children put themselves in others' shoes to feel and explore the others' emotions. Help your kids learn a state of empathy from the start. Helping your children learn empathy together will make them feel bad for their siblings being extra sensitive and gentle towards them. A proper sense of empathy can help children sympathize with their siblings much more gently, providing emotional support.
2. Don’t Compare
Parents should always be mindful to never compare siblings together in any positive or negative situation. Comparing will make one of the siblings feel bad and make them feel worthless. It will promote the habit of comparison to get love and affection between the siblings, which can affect the anxious child while their siblings get attention. This cycle will overall make the environment toxic and harmful for the anxious child, elevating it to depression.
3. Help Them Be Gentle And Sensitive
Always teach your siblings to be mindful of their actions and act gentle and sensitive around someone suffering emotionally. Teach your children to treat others how they want to be treated. It will enhance siblings' kindness and empathy, creating a wholesome environment for anxious children to recover.
4. Open Conversation
Open conversation is the best way to communicate with siblings when one of them needs extra care and support. Make your child understand how anxiousness affects the life of another sibling, making them sympathize for a better environment and emotional support.
5. Treat Them Equally
Always attend to both siblings equally so there is no feeling of jealousy in either of them. Any negative feeling around the house, when one of the children is anxious, can start a cycle of a toxic environment with constant mishappenings and emotional hurt.
Conclusion
Sibling love can instantly heal an anxious child. Siblings who play, study, eat, and grow together have one of the strongest bonds in the world with the best healing elements. Parents must ensure that both siblings understand each other in the toughest time to be each other's pillar of support.
The views expressed are that of the expert alone.
