What causes stress in children?

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Stress is an inevitable part of life. Each person undergoes some or the other kind of stress at some point in their life. In the modern world there has been an increasing number of cases of stress in children.

What is Stress?

Stress can be termed as a body’s physical, chemical and emotional reaction to any overwhelming situation. It arises from any event that makes you angry, frustrated or nervous. Stress, at times, can be positive as it helps an individual to avoid danger or meet deadlines, while on the other hand, its prolonged existence can be harmful for the individual.

Stress in children

Stress among children is quite common nowadays. Children of all ages may experience stress. Children may not be able to identify their own stress and may not be able to explain them. It is up to the parents to recognise if their child is stressed and if so what are the reasons which are causing it. Usually parents could easily help children tackle their stress but in some cases professional help may be required.

Stress caused in children can be attributed to both internal and external factors. Internal stressors may include a child’s feelings, pressures such as doing better in school etc. External stressors may include any kind of problem a child is facing at home, school or even with peers.

Common causes of stress in children

Parental problems: If there are any kinds of disputes going on among the parents, it may affect the child adversely. Frequent fights, quarrels among parents may leave the child prone to stress. Besides this, factors like alcoholism in parents etc. may also cause stress in children.

Family Problems: Major changes in life like death of someone close, shifting to a new environment or even birth of a younger sibling may cause stress in children.

Academic Pressure: Children at times feel that they may not be accepted by their parents if they perform poorly in school. This pressure to perform better in academics may cause stress in children.

Bullying: Bullying in school, home or any other place is a major factor causing stress in children. Children who are often bullied may be embarrassed about it and may not share their ordeals with anyone.

Schedules: Highly tight schedules cause stress even in adults. How can one expect it to not be a factor among children? Constantly being occupied with one activity or another can result in stress among children.

How to identify stress in children?

The following are some common signs which indicate stress in children:

Difficulty in paying attention
Behavioral changes
Refraining from various activities
Being reserved and withdrawing from family and friends
Decreased appetite
Bedwetting
Nightmares
Sleep Problems

How to help your child?

Generate a calm, peaceful environment at home
Talk to your children about each and everything that has been going on in their life
Keep a tab on what your child is consuming through TV, books or social medias
Allow your child to make his own decisions
Encourage them in whatever they are doing

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Parents do every possible thing in their power to protect their children and nourish them well — precisely mothers. They often give up on their own dreams/ desires to fulfil their children’s wishes.

Mothers also tend to help and guide other newbie mothers — just like we help new people in our office/ school or other places.

When two mothers Atiya and Afra became mothers, they did the same! Both of them were homemakers when they started their initiative, Kiddiegram, and eventually created a community of more than 100k mothers.

The journey of Kiddiegram began in November of 2014, when Atiya and Afra, twenty-something at the time, decided to turn their vision into reality. It has now manifested into a celebrated platform for mothers, and it helps them build their motherhood journey more simply and memorably.

“We’re extremely passionate about being mums. And while we take parenting very seriously, we both share a common vision. We wanted to make our parenting journey fun, and we wanted to share our journey with other parents. Like all parents, we believe in putting our kids first. So that’s where Kiddiegram came in, we transformed our passion into our profession,” both Atiya and Afra have got two wonderful little munchkins each.

The Mumbai based mothers believed that there is a big gap in our country on precise, relevant and creative ideas for parents who are just trying to take each day as it comes. Back when they started, there was barely any good Indian parenting platform, and they were always so inspired by what they saw on Instagram pages from USA, UK and other countries. And that’s how they came up with the idea of creating and building something similar on their own.

“We didn’t think about it too much. We just opened up an Instagram page, started posting about things we do with our kids and the rest, as they say, is history. People started showing interest in what we were doing, and the encouragement we got even to this date is truly heartwarming,” says Afra, one of the co-founders of Kiddiegram.

Kiddiegram, unlike other platforms, is trying to make a noticeable difference with its work. At Kiddiegram, the focus is to provide mothers with a platform for quick and easy solutions catering to learning activities, home décor, clothing, crafts, events, DIY’s (to name a few) for kids of different ages. The founders try to convey their efforts concisely and in an organised manner. One can say that Kiddiegram is a one-stop guide to all things related to kids for parents on the go.

When asked about any kind of investments/ profits made so far, Afra says, “monetising Kiddiegram or making huge profits out of it was never the intention or the focus. We didn’t worry about competition, and we didn’t treat this page as a business entity. We always agreed that we would continue doing it as long as it is fun. The more we concentrated on our content, the more we grew. It was an added bonus that so many brands approached us and trusted us to promote their products or services.”

But in the age of Instagram marketing or precisely influencer marketing, growing with organic and authentic content was never easy. With the rising unwanted crowd of fake followers and fake engagement, it was not easy for the ladies to sustain. “Since we’re creators ourselves, we can only talk about the conditions of creators on Instagram in India. It has truly been disappointing to watch the sad turn of events of so-called ‘influencers’ that have taken recently. Fake followers and fake engagement have become the norm these days, and we genuinely hope things turn around soon,” Afra writes to Infano.

But as they say, you gotta keep moving ahead, no matter what!

While talking more about the business front, Afra shares an incident from the past, “a few years ago our account was hacked into! We were logged out of it and were asked to pay a ransom to get it back. Thankfully it all worked out in the end; however, we learnt quite a few lessons after that incident.”

She shares it with hope and warning that self-learnt entrepreneurs could stay beware of such mishaps and keep their content and account protected.

The only regret the duo have been living with till now is that they weren’t really able to expand their operations PAN India. Since they are settled in Mumbai, their focus was always mostly within the city.

But with the pandemic, they got away it. Kiddiegram, now further wish to enter into e-commerce. “We want to grow our audience, maybe even internationally. We’ve always wanted to get into e-commerce. We love promoting brands that we truly believe in, and it makes us so happy to have brand owners be satisfied with their promotions on Kiddiegram. It’s really because of all the amazing followers we have who trust our recommendations. The best feeling is when we get messages from our followers who try out our ideas,” says the duo.

They finally conclude it with encouraging others to follow their dreams, “find a niche and stick to it. Don’t get affected by numbers. Stay true to what you believe in. Don’t mislead the brands that trust you. Work hard in silence. Let your success be your noise.”

You can connect with Kiddiegram via their Instagram or Facebook account or, alternatively, can visit their website here.

Have you found your true calling yet? Or know someone who has realised it? Keep sharing such #PassionToProfession stories with me and stay tuned for another tale next Sunday! #InfanoWomen