Becoming a refugee is extremely difficult situation, you suddenly loose almost everything you had, loos your routine, you are worried about your family and friends, and much more. For children its even worse, the don't have the ability to grasp the situations like an adult can, all of the difficulty doesn't have any "logic", their coping mechanism s still not fully developed and so on.
As a parent how can i help my children better cope with this abnormal situation?
Control your reactions - It is also very important to understand that children look at their parents to understand how to react to a situation, if they see their parents in anxiety, shout, being violence, or staying in bed all day and night they absorb this reaction and in an unaware aspect understand this situations is extremely awful and unbearable. however f they see their parents active, playing with them, talking with them, have a routing than they understand that however the situation is so unjust and cruel they can deal with it.
Talk to the children - not speaking on things doesn't make them disappear, it only makes one deal with the situation alone, encourage them to talk about their feeling, their fears etc. don't be afraid to open things, you might often see that just giving a place for them to speak on their difficulties can have a true healing feeling.
Don't overload with information, don't lie. - you need to be a reliable source for your children that why you should never lie to them about the situation, because they might get the information unfiltered from another person and you wont have the ability to control what the information they receive. but on the other hand, don't overload them with information and be specific according to their age. for example, a three year old child doesn't need to know on any bombing or if someone was killed, he also shouldn't hear that the explosions that he hears is just thunders. you can tell him that there are fighting in their neighborhood and we went to a safe place now, and we hope to return back home once the fighting ends.
maintain a routing - people need routine, especially children, therefore make sure the children have a routine, they get up at morning, go to bed in the evening, eat as regularly as possible, study, do homework, read, play as much as possible they need to know the schedule this gives them a sense of control.
play and lough with them - of course it so difficult to lough, and even to play in such a horrible situation, but playing and laughing is like oxygen for children (and adults), therefore try to do your best to play with them even if it is for a few moments per day.
Becoming a refugee is awful, but it is in anyone ability to try and better cope with the situation while praying this would eventually end and things will come back to normal.
our prays and thoughts with you and we hope this post helps
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