- Battles over seemingly ‘trivial’ issues can be exhausting for you and your young person. They also tend to be driven by what we think society expects from us and our children (e.g., eating meals together, having presents that are wrapped up on special occasions, wearing lots of different styles of clothing).
- Often there are things that are important to us as parents (e.g., all sitting together at the dinner table) but these can cause distress for young person.
- It is crucial to think about what is important to you and what can you be more flexible with. (i.e., is it more important that young person eats their meal, albeit sat alone where they are more comfortable or struggles to eat when sat in a busier social situation?)
- As a family, prioritise what is important to you. Try to involve your child and find out what is important to them.
- Ask yourself is there a safety aspect to this which means we can’t be flexible with it?
- Remember that sometimes it is important to try to encourage flexibility / change, but at other times this can cause more anxiety.
