Commentary: Parents, do a self-check before preparing your child for PSLE

GO BACK TO BASICS

Holding space to get a child that is going through a stressful period like the PSLE doesn’t have to appear complicated, it can be as easy as reminding your kid and yourself to go back to what is the core of our own family.

Microsoft Jolie Tan, the parenting coach on Actualise, suggests that keeping space during examination season can be you and your child winding down each day with the Three Good Things exercise through Positive Psychology. This requires writing down three things that go well for you personally every day for a minimum of a week.

A few studies have shown the exercise, created by psychologist Martin Seligman, is associated with increased degrees of pleasure and well-being .

It is also a lot more realistic to work towards creating small storage compartments of relaxation, preferably daily.

For instance , instead of drinking your favourite tea whilst marking your child’s assessment papers, consider five minutes to sit down in the favourite part of your home to savour your drink.   The key is to take some time out of your schedule to focus on the self-soothing activity rather than trying to multi-task.

At the place of work, an ecology associated with care can also start working.

Dr Jean Liu, Assistant Teacher of Psychology from Yale-NUS College, shares that parents, specifically mothers, often struggle with guilt at the office and guilt inside the family.

However , psychology research has discovered that the most important support for working mothers comes when the organisations they work with have family-friendly insurance policies and culture.