|
In just our normal lives there sometimes are stress situations that cause a parent and a small child to be separated and major adjustments need to be made. These stress situations can include serious illness, injury, death of a parent, or even divorce of the child's parents. There can be a move from one part of the country to another that will cause a small child to be separated from one or more parents. A father may lose his current employment and have to relocate to obtain further employment and there may be a separation period in which the entire family is not together as one unit.
During these instances I have mentioned above and many others the work of the family must be to support the child in a time of crisis. Parents need to be fully prepared to handle crises that occur in a small child's life that will cause immediate concern. When a child is separated from one or more of his parents he goes through a period of adjustment that is very understandable, it is considered a loss of the familiar. He loses a source of his nurturance.
A child can learn to tolerate and live productively with a wide range of stressful or threatening events in his life but it is necessary for him to have the proper psychological support from the important people in his life.
Sometimes a small child will be treated as if he is incapable of copying with the loss of a parent, but this can be helped with the love of the other parents and other loved ones and also friends of the family. The child will learn a valuable lesson as a small child that will enable him to have the ability to deal with stress in his later life.
The family needs to be viewed as a unit of interacting personalities striving to satisfy the other's needs. When parents put a greater emphasis on the family as a unit that plays a role in meeting the needs of all its members, especially the small child or children in the family then the family can satisfy. It not only satisfies the small child or children's needs but also provides a basis for healthy personality development. The home atmosphere is very much needed to be a place of love and concern for the small child or children as this is how he will learn to endure separation from one or more parents and be able to have good coping skills.
A child's behavior is learned from parents through interaction processes when the parents have a consideration for the effect of circumstances on the small child or children. This special interaction process is necessary for the child to grow not only physically but also mentally.
There have been many studies involving the effect of the parent and child's relationship and psychologically the child is better served by the parent dealing effectively with the stress of the separation of the parent from the small child or the children.
| 
