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Is Your Kid Acting Out, or Just Sad? - Lifehacker
It sounds like yet another sibling argument. Or stomping feet followed by a slammed door. It sounds like loud voices and defiance or those two particularly whiny words parents everywhere love: I’m bored. It sounds like a lot of different things, but what it actually might be is sadness.
It’s not surprising that our kids may be feeling sad right now. They’re got a lot to be sad about—school has been canceled, their sports and activities have been cancelled, Friday night dinners at Grandma and Grandpa’s have been canceled... it seems like their whole world has been canceled. But sadness, particularly in kids, can masquerade as other emotions.
“The really important thing for parents to remember is that sadness looks very different in children than in adults,” says Dr. Barbara Greenberg, a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of adolescents.
It sounds like yet another sibling argument. Or stomping feet followed by a slammed door. It sounds like loud voices and defiance or those two particularly whiny words parents everywhere love: I’m bored. It sounds like a lot of different things, but what it actually might be is sadness.
It’s not surprising that our kids may be feeling sad right now. They’re got a lot to be sad about—school has been canceled, their sports and activities have been cancelled, Friday night dinners at Grandma and Grandpa’s have been canceled... it seems like their whole world has been canceled. But sadness, particularly in kids, can masquerade as other emotions.
“The really important thing for parents to remember is that sadness looks very different in children than in adults,” says Dr. Barbara Greenberg, a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of adolescents.