My Favorite Quote from Health Week 4

When we think about mental health, we must also realize that mental health conditions can also happen in children. This may be hard to accept because even some adults don’t realize the importance of their own mental health.

Mental health conditions/illnesses can occur from different factors in children from birth to traumatic events. The important thing to remember that there are resources available for children as well.

One factor I want to discuss is providing an emotionally stable environment to children. A child’s mental health can be affected by his/her environment. I believe that we should strive to make sure that our home environments are safe, stable, loving, and positive for our children. I know that in reality that does not always happen.

Growing up my parents provided my siblings and I with the idea stable and loving environment, but there was a time when my parents had a tough time in their marriage and they argued a lot. I was the only child left at home at that time, and it was hard to listen too. My parents worked through that time, but that made me realize that I do not like to be around a lot of arguing nor do I like to argue. It is so draining.

Now let me fast forward to my life now. I had mentioned in my Workin’ on Me post that my relationship with my daughter’s father had went sour, and that led to part of my depression. Well things where kind of rocky before then. We argued so much during our time together, mainly because our communication styles and coping skills were different. We still tried to stay together and work it out. We were planning on moving in together, but the arguments just kept coming.

I remember one time as we were arguing, I felt my baby girl tense and get into a ball. I should not have been allowing myself to become upset. From that moment, I made my decision that I would not have my baby growing up in that type of home environment. I knew that I could not take it, so I was not going to put her through it. I was not going to cause unnecessary stress or anxiety on my child. I will say that things were not always bad with us we had some good times as well, but when we could not even communicate without the conversation turning into an argument, it was time to reevaluate.

My mental health is important, but my child’s mental health was more important to me. I am raising her in a stable, loving, and positive environment. Not completing where I would want us to be, but we will get there. I am also working on my mental health, so that I can be the parent that she needs.

For more information on treating mental health in children and providing emotionally stable environments for children, here are some articles below:

Treatment of Children with Mental Illness

Creating an Emotionally Supportive Home Environment

Parental Influence on the Emotional Development of Children

The importance of safe, stable and nurturing environments for young children