Helping your child learn the difference between positive and negative stress

Parenting expert Nikki Bush has advice on getting to know your child's stress threshold to help them perform at their best.

Parents would all like their children to perform at their best and achieve their goals.

But how much pressure is enough and how can you avoid the extremes of either overloading them, or leaving them with too little motivation?

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Parenting expert Nikki Bush says it's all about maintaining a dynamic balance.

The human system needs just the right amount of pressure and tension in order to perform... There are two kinds of stress: there's eustress, which is positive stress and there's distress.

Nikki Bush, Parenting expert

She says too much pressure and too little pressure can result in much the same effect.

When you burn out, you lose that ability to push yourself because suddenly you are emotionally depleted, you are physically exhausted, you become detached from your goals and the people around you.

Nikki Bush, Parenting expert

Bush points out that every member of a family will have a different stress threshold and the key is to get to know your children's limits through observing them and having conversations with them.

We need to teach our families how to read their own stress responses because they need to know what's optimal for them.

Nikki Bush, Parenting expert

For pointers on the kinds of conversations to have with your children to map their stress, take a listen:

This article first appeared on 702 : Helping your child learn the difference between positive and negative stress

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