PracticeHint  

Relaxing ...
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Child and youth care worker in empirical relaxation modelling
experiment with boy and his dog in controlled laboratory conditions

The expectation that we child and youth care workers must be models for children is probably more intimidating than it needs to be. We can easily get the impression that we should be paragons of virtue and that our every action has the capacity to inspire or impair a young person in our care.

Not so. Paragons make poor models. They are so far from normality as to seem beyond the reach of ordinary kids. More, they are often so suggestive of exaggerated morals that they create more guilt-feelings than hope.

Our job is to model normal and functional people. We are helpful models when we, like most people, struggle with situations and have to work hard at finding solutions. We are models who kids can identify with when we make mistakes and errors or judgement. We are powerful and effective models when we persevere and make good on our shortcomings and apologise and get up and try again. Little more is expected from anybody.

So, especially at holiday times like this, we should feel free to model tiredness and relaxation and recreation. It is an honest message that after all the effort and commitment we need to recharge our batteries. We let kids know that it’s OK to chill and hang for a while, it’s normal and necessary, and part of our human rhythms.

So during this holiday period, help your young charges to do this. And do it yourself.

Relax.