MENTAL HEALTH in KIDS

Last week South Africa could have been the setting for a horror movie.

I honestly never thought I would live to see my country like that and I pray that I never have to ever again. Scenes of factories burning, shopping centres being destroyed, looting and violence flashed across every TV screen and, try as I wanted to shield my children from it, I failed.

They felt the energy dipping as we checked our social media for updates. They heard the snippets of news on the short drives to the shops. They sensed the uncertainty and confusion as we tip-toed around the big issues.

Now I don’t know about you but if I remember anything about being little, things always seemed bigger when people whispered. So, we stopped whispering! Teachers were forced to do that too. My daughter’s English class via Zoom, for example, had to be put on ice for the teacher to field questions (and conspiracy theories) from learners. They wanted in on the conversation and it made me so proud to know that my kids have teachers in their lives who could hold space for such a tender dialogue.

We then received a notice from school advising of a MENTAL HEALTH DAY on Friday. A free day off school for kids to relax, de-stress, do a digital detox and reboot.

Whoooah, I thought. Perhaps this damn world really is waking up to the fact that we need to do things differently if we want to raise a generation of adults that don’t have to spend their whole lives recovering from their childhoods?

I’m hopeful. About South Africa. About the future of mental health and about Friday. I really think we’re on to something. Four-day work weeks are already totally in a thing in some parts of the world:-)

Lee

The Little Things this week

My children made a card for my best friend’s mother this week. They picked flowers from the garden which we slipped inside a handmade card and sealed with a crooked bit of tape. I bundled their contribution into my pretty gift bag and sent it off, together with the rest of her gift.

She sent us a thank you video some hours later. Do you know what she treasured most? The random, mismatched flowers and words up and down a page stained by dirty fingers.

Pretty little blooms for a special lady

I was moved to tears.

It had been a hard week for us. The kids are back to doing online school, South Africa is back in Level 4 lockdown and many friends are down with Covid. Touch wood, we have been safe, happy and healthy but still, it hasn’t been easy hearing about other people losing loved ones and battling to save their businesses etc.

So, being able to make someone smile made me smile and once again I can say with absolute conviction that I am GRATEFUL for

• the gift of life
• the gift of good health
• my happy, healthy, creative, funny, kind, intuitive little people
• friends that feel like family
• flowers, birdies, sunshine, bugs and the whole ecosystem that gives and gives
• the sense that the more I appreciate THE LITTLE THINGS, the more they turn up.

How about you?

Can you vibe with that?

Lee