Home And Family Blog

‘Child Depression’ has been identified as one of the most significant social and family problems that has been going upwards in recent years. Though this problem is crashing the lives of many children gradually, people can hardly realize its existence. Seriousness of this problem can be received from a paper by Irina V. Sokolova from “Depression in children: what causes it and how we can help” (www.personalityresearch.org/papers/sokolova.html). According to Sokolova, one in five children has an apparent mental, emotional or behavioral disorder. Also one in 10 may suffer from a serious emotional disturbance. One in every 33 children and one in eight adolescents may have depression. Not surprisingly, suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15 to 24 years olds and the sixth leading cause of death for 5 to 14 year olds. The number of attempted suicides is even higher. Sadly, seventy percent of children do not get proper mental health treatment. So let us discuss the causes and ways to deal with it.

Causes of Depression: -

1. Children with working parents do not get proper parental care. So they grow up in lonely environments bereft of adequate love and care. These situations make them withdraw from normal activities, making them introvert and loners. They might also suffer from inferiority complex due to these.

2. The psychology of the children is greatly hampered by parental conflicts like divorce.

3. Also, delinquency might become a big factor in the mental development of a child. It is often found that some parents neglect their children or favor one child over others. In these cases, the child might totally detach himself or herself.

4. Parents wanting their children to excel in all fields of life may also put undue pressure on them knowingly or unknowingly. These burdens in respect of game, study, music, drawing automatically lead to the break down of a child’s mental capacity and put him or her into deep depression.

5. A child spends as much time at home as in school during formative years. In academic institutions a teacher has to look upon 50 to 80 students in a single class. So it is not at all possible for him or her to pay a careful attention to individual student. It is natural for a child to be unmindful in the class. But the child can not escape the busy homework. This results in the depression. Failures in examinations or in competitions cause to the feeling of shame and guilt. Too much anxiety about the future, too many big books, over much expectation of the parents and teachers may increase the depression of child. Although student counseling regarding mental health should be made in school, it is quite a dream for many schools where basic necessities are rarely accommodated or provided.

Due to the sensitive age, children are inclining more towards friends than their families. Being unable to resist youthful temptation, some children lead to drug abuse, smoking, and ultimately depression. Sometimes internet surfing becomes a serious case of depression. Unwanted websites, violence & sex related videos leave a dangerous impression upon the soft minds of young children. Murder and dangerous offense of the society are geared up by the videos containing violence and horror.

Adolescence is marked by many physical changes. This change is obvious in girls e.g. the starting of menstruation. At that time attraction towards opposite sex is naturally increased. Unless proper guidance from parents and teachers is provided, the child may lead to depression. Sometimes, many girls are sexually abused by known or unknown friends, relatives or neighbors. This painful experience tremendously depresses the child. Sex and depression is notably increasing all over the world especially in the poor countries. Sometimes loss of friends due to change of residence can cause temporary depression. Death of a close friend or relative or parents is another major case of depression of child.

Read the rest of “Better Way to Tackle Child Depression” »

Although internet is bliss for modern age, in some cases, it is posing a challenge for many parents and educational institutions. Modern institutions give assignments to perform in the houses but the Students are using such sites that contain indecent images instead. So it has become an urgent need for the parents to concentrate upon the matter. In order to comprehend the matter exactly, the National School Board Foundation and Grunwald Associates worked together on a national survey of parents and children. This survey was conducted nationwide. The surveyors interviewed lots of parents of children between the ages 9 to 17 as well as the children. The findings were on how the children used internet and for what purpose. The alarming data received from the survey is enough to bring all parents a step-by-step workshop on how to use ‘Parental Control’ in the Windows Vista.

Step: - 1.

If you want to set parental controls, you need to create multiple accounts in windows so as to enforce the parental control. For creating an account, click on ‘Start /Setting’ and then ‘Control Panel’. You need to double click Parental Controls option. Click on ‘Create a new user Account’ at the bottom of the window. Write a user name for the account and click ‘Create account button’. Click on ‘On enforce current setting’ radio button. Go right and monitor your kiddies.

Step: - 2.

When you have created a new user account, you are able to restrict certain websites. You can do so by manipulating the Windows Vista web filter option. You need to run vista Parental Control from the control panel. Click the account for which you wish to set parental control. Click on the windows vista web control link. Click on “create radio” or “block some websites” button. Click on “Edit and Allow and Block link”. Enter the website name to be blocked in the website address box. Click on “Block” button and then click “OK”

Step: - 3.

If time limits for an account are set in your computer, it restricts the user of that account from accessing the computer as per the manipulated option. You are able to block the user from accessing the computer for several hours, days or weeks. For doing that, Run parental control panel. Click on the account you wish to apply restriction to click “Time Limit” link. Click on the blue box and drag this as you require. Click “OK”.

Step: -4.

There are some applications which have several functions. Some of them should not be used by everyone. Windows Vista allows an administrator of the computer to restrict an account from using particular application. For doing so, run Parental Controls from the Control Panel. Click “Allow or

Read the rest of “Tips to Save Your Children from Unwanted Websites” »

Once I was in a state of indecision about a matter that involved possible risk. So I went to consult with one of my friends who is little bit elder and much wiser than me. On disclosing the matter to him, he thought for a while and wrote something on a piece of paper. He pushed the paper to me confidently. What he wrote was, “Be resolute and a miraculous strength you will achieve to execute your resolution.”

The words my friend had given me were a  quotation from a torn newspaper he preserved carefully along with his valuable documents. This made me visualize apparently that when I had dropped out in the past, I allowed the fear of failure bar me from trying at all. Hesitation is the most stupefying of all negative emotions. It can inactivate physical strength and paralize will power.

Alternately, whenever I had plunged into deep, impelled by a flash of courage or just plain pushed by the rude hands of circumstances, I had always been able to swim until I got my feet on the ground.

‘Being resolute’ is not the implification of being reckless or desperate. Resolution means a firm decision, to bite off more than you are sure you can chew. And there is nothing miraculous about the power referred to they are the latent capacities what all of us posses : energy, skill, discretion, creative ideas etc.

Read the rest of “Being Resolute - The Miraculous Power” »