The Huddle Wisdom Blog: For Parents of Anxious & Sensitive Kids
Expert guidance and real-world reflections from a child psychiatrist who’s also a parent.
You Can’t Fix Your Anxious Child — And That’s Not Your Job
There’s a quiet sort of panic I hear often from parents — especially those raising sensitive, intense, or anxious children.
They’ve tried explaining. Comforting. Distracting. Solving.
And still — the meltdowns, the tension, the fear — they keep coming.
The parent begins to wonder: “Why isn’t this working? Am I doing something wrong?”
Here’s what I often say gently in response:
You’re not doing it wrong.
You’re trying to fix something that doesn’t need fixing.
Let’s be clear — anxiety can be distressing. For your child. For you.
But it’s not a broken part. It’s not something to remove.
It’s something to understand.
▍Anxiety isn’t a flaw to correct
Anxious behaviour is often the surface expression of an overloaded nervous system. Your child might not have the words for what’s happening — so it spills out through avoidance, outbursts, shutdowns, or spirals.
When we respond by rushing to calm them down — even with the best intentions — the message that sometimes lands is:
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BOOKS: Can Fiction Show us the realities of Parenting?
At times, our existence is so saturated with the hustle and bustle of daily life that it becomes essential to pause and rejuvenate ourselves. Reading, for many of us, serves as a sanctuary, a haven of tranquility. However, we may sometimes grapple with guilt, perceiving this retreat as a form of escapism or a misuse of time.
To address this, I’ve curated a selection of fiction books that impart valuable lessons about parenting. This allows you to indulge in your well-deserved respite, vicariously live through characters unrelated to you, and simultaneously glean insights on enhancing your parenting skills.
Fiction books can be a treasure trove of wisdom, shedding light on the intricacies of parenting and its associated challenges. They offer readers the opportunity to view situations from diverse angles, learn from the experiences of others, and cultivate empathy for a variety of parenting scenarios. Moreover, delving into fiction can serve as an escape, enabling parents
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