Carme Crespo, a child and adolescent psychologist and lecturer for ISEP’s Master’s in Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology, collaborates on a report for El Mundo newspaper to offer various recommendations for planning the summer and enjoying family activities (parents and children) and intimate moments as a couple.
Our lecturer points out that summer is a good time to learn to coexist but without turning vacation time into a race against the clock of activities. It’s good for children to learn to relax, as they suffer from an overloaded schedule during the school year. However, even if it’s vacation, there should also be some basic responsibilities such as helping at home, agreeing on schedules, or getting a certain number of hours of sleep. According to Carme Crespo, schedules, balanced diet, and sleep hygiene should not be forgotten.
Similarly, the psychologist points out in the report ‘Tips to ‘survive’ family vacations‘, it’s important to remember that children themselves want to spend time with their parents, so they will value a shared moment of leisure more than a continuous stream of activities. In fact, different studies show that “children who do not receive enough attention from their parents or reference figures are more prone to showing aggression, suffering from feelings of loneliness, boredom that they don’t know how to manage or fill with activities; personally, they exhibit low self-esteem and insecurity that can affect both their personal life and lead to low academic performance“. Therefore, for children to grow emotionally, they must be able to give and receive affection and know how to express and understand the emotions of others. Vacations should foster the learning of these models and not be moments of tension.
Read the full article Tips to ‘survive’ family vacations (El Mundo 19-07-2014)