Emotional wellness comes from coping with stress and making positive contributions to the world. Fathers play a role in this for children.
Here’s what you can do:
- Help your child feel safe and connected to you and her environment. A sense of belonging encourages a child’s confidence and trust.
- Nurture resiliency. Be there to help your child face adversity and learn to handle tough situations.
- Encourage your child to make decisions. Making decisions and taking responsibility for them builds self-confidence and respect.
- Provide opportunities to help others. Teaching your child that he will influence other people and can make a difference in the world builds social skills.
- Let your child test new abilities. Building competence in different tasks teaches a child how to accomplish their goals.
- Support your child’s physical health. Healthy eating habits, physical exercise and adequate sleep help a child handle stress.
Did you know . . .
- Looking after your own emotional health is important for your children’s health?
Children learn to care for themselves by watching their dads. The habits they set will last a lifetime. So dads need to role model positive ways of managing emotions. - Emotional health is affected by our lifestyle choices?
It is important that dads get enough exercise, eat healthy diets and get enough sleep themselves. Carefully monitoring and controlling the use of alcohol and other substances matters, too. - Emotional health affects everyone at different times?
It is normal for most men to experience emotional ups and downs. Age, relationships and the environment will affect how men feel. - Emotional health covers a lot of things we may experience in our day to day lives?
Emotions may become a problem when depression, anxiety, stress and anger become overwhelming. Things like work, leisure time and relationships become tough to manage. - There are ways to get help if you need it?
Talking to a good friend, a counsellor or someone else you trust can be a good way to keep balance in your life.