Hi everyone! As we come to the end of the first half of 2022 and the COVID impact appears to be waning in some Caribbean countries, the focus shifts to the need for parents to build personal capacity in order to support their children through the most traumatic period of their young lives.
The article linked to below speaks to the need for parents to cultivate emotional intelligence as lockdowns cease and children navigate the return to in-person learning and interaction with their peers.
The author, Marilyn Robb, PhD has been developing emotionally intelligent programs for parents and setting up SEL programs in schools for many years. She recently developed parenting listening Circles in preparation for the start of the new school term.
"At the heart of the changes necessary to cope with these issues is improving the emotional well-being of both the parents and the children. Emotionally Intelligent Parenting involves being aware of one’s own feelings, understanding the true source of those feelings, being able to manage them effectively and responding appropriately to the feelings of others.
This awareness of feelings in oneself and in others helps in the nurturing of quality relationships. Emotionally Intelligent Parenting focuses this awareness in our relationships with our children. But it also teaches constructive and creative problem-solving skills and helps our children to develop their own good relationships."
The author's words resonate with us - "The emotional health of children is tied to the social and emotional characteristics of the environment in which they live—the parents, the family and the community.
If the parents are emotionally strong, then the children stand a better chance of learning to respond in non-aggressive ways to conflict situations and making better decisions in managing their lives. Since we cannot teach what we have not learned, parents need to ensure that they have enough knowledge of these skills and can practice them themselves in order to model them and teach them to their children."
This can be challenging in a society that stigmatises the mental and emotional needs of its citizens and suggests that persons - especially males - who are unable to maintain a strong facade are weak and effeminate. Nonetheless, it is the harmful stereotypes that must be broken and with the global reset provided by COVID-19, there may be no better time than the present to rid ourselves of these fallacious mindsets that hinder the development of our collective emotional intelligence.
For more information, please read the full article at
https://trinidadexpress.com/fe...7a-1bc5ca04ba39.html
What do you think about breaking the stigma in the Caribbean for adults and children to develop emotional intelligence?
Comments (0)