Schonert-Reichl – adult self-care

There’s nothing like feeling connected to your colleagues, to other parents that are supportive rather than can interfere. Interestingly there was a study done several years ago of teachers, to look at this notion of stress contagion.  And researchers were interested in seeing- it was early years of elementary school- what were the things that stressed out teachers and did that stressed out teacher actually ripple down in to the classroom.  And they found the number one top stressor for teachers was not getting respect from their colleagues.  

So if I think about any of those centres or things is how important that context of collaboration connection and supportiveness is important for the adults.  So if I had advice and people were saying we want to bring in these programs, I’d say first spend time connecting with the adults and creating a kind, collaborative, supportive context before you start thinking about just going to the kids.  I think a lot of people feel – I think they don’t think of that first and I think people who go and work with children, people who have that, feel that it’s somewhat indulgent to start with themselves, to take care of themselves because they want to help the children.  But I want to say to them now the research is really showing that when you take care of yourself first, it benefits the children.  The children do benefit and because your own well-being creates a more positive atmosphere for children.