The Very Hungry Worry Monsters

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The idea behind all these activities is not that convince children that worries don’t exist. Far from it! It is more to get them to think about and process worry in a logical way. It can be helpful to team up with your child against the worry monster and come up with ways of responding to it. The phrases below might help make the worry monster appear smaller and less powerful: Passing round a designated box or basket as a circle time, and placing an object into it, whilst linking it to a worry, will work in just the same way as the monster.

A child with separation anxiety starts to worry about leaving to go to school. As a parent, you can say, “It sure looks like Bossy Pants is trying to scare you. I know Bossy Pants is loud and scary but you are brave and know that I will see you as soon as school is finished. Be brave and don’t listen to mean old Bossy Pants.” A child may say, “Bossy Pants is scaring me about school right now. I am telling her that she is just a bully and even though I feel scared, I know I will see you after school.”For a child, it is normal to experience worry, particularly as they begin to explore the world and develop their own sense of identity. Children may worry about many different things, and whilst these worries might seem harmless to us as adults, they can cause a child a great deal of distress. Sometimes these worries can be so upsetting that it can affect their day-to-day activities, making them harder to carry out or enjoy. For example, they might be worried about an upcoming test at school which may lead them to want to avoid attending, or they may be concerned about a friend’s upcoming birthday party. Explain to your class that our worries sometimes feel like a big monster but by talking and writing them down, they aren't so scary anymore. Anxiety is a bully. It bosses your child around, tells them they are not good enough, and causes high amounts of fear. Suddenly, your anxious child begins to see anxiety as a part of them, bringing down their self-confidence and opinion of themselves. The best way to help your child battle anxiety is to name the worry monster, thus, making sure that the anxiety is seen externally. This process allows children to keep their own identify strong while externalizing the anxiety as the bully. It could be quite simple differently colored pebbles. Or they could have simple writing patterns on them, maybe things like swirls or zig-zags. Park feelings or emotions that they may not be able to cope with at the present moment until they are ready to deal with them.

We’ll share a tutorial for a fun monster worry box in the next section, but let’s be clear, this technique is equally effective with any box you may have lying around in the house. With your pencil, trace the bottom of the paint tube to make two big pupils. Cut out the eyeballs and cut out the pupils. Set aside. Worry monsters are so simple to make, and have such a wide range of benefits. Of course there is no way to completely eliminate worry, but there has been research into the impact of strategies used in early life. ( Source) Suddenly you see a big monster in the sea. Throw the box into the sea, and the monster gobbles it up.Worry and anxiety has a big negative impact on sleep, and so helping children to relax slightly before bedtime is important. It is probably the most crucial time of the day to alleviate worry. Personifying worry is a powerful way to help kids deal with anxious feelings. An activity that students always seem to get a lot out of is creating their own depiction of what their worry would look like if it were alive. Students come up with things like monsters, dragons, annoying mosquitos, and so much more. In my worry counseling group, I help students make a worry monster to examine what their worry is telling them and how they can deal with it! Make A Worry Monster Introducing the Activity For some children – just writing the worry was enough, for others they needed a minute or two with me to chat through something (I usually spoke to them quietly at my desk while correcting their copy or brought them outside while the other children were working.)