There are many stresses when a child is in the early
childhood stage. From a community where I am from, stressors are not prevalent.
There are many middle class to higher class families living in my town and the
school district where I teach. Growing up I do not remember having stress. I
remember stressing about friend issues, getting homework done, winning my
softball game, or what clothes to put on my new Barbie. I never had to deal
with something totally stressful and I am very thankful for that! I never
really reflect on the stressors that some children are put on in such an early
age. These stressors could consist of poverty, racism, natural disasters,
diseases, pollution, and violence.
I asked my childhood friends if their families ever had a
stressful time with any of the issues that I listed above or any issues like
that. Most of my friends said no, but one of my friends said yes. Growing up
she said that her family and her stressed about poverty and hunger. When she
said this, I was very shocked. By looking at her family and reflecting on her
family at that time- I would have never guessed. She always had new clothes,
toys, was never dirty, and never seemed upset. She said that everything that
she received was a donation from the church where she belongs. When she was
growing up her mother and father both lost their jobs. They were both teachers
in the same district and both lost their jobs from budget cuts in the same
year. Her parents had so many years of experience that they could not find jobs
anywhere else. By working other places they would lose their health care and unemployment
and would be making less. She said that food was tight and she was on free
lunches at school. She said that her family almost lost their house 2 times
when she was in elementary school. One time she even had to pack up all her
things because the family thought they were going to get evicted. But thanks to
those people at the church, they helped this family a lot. I would have never
guessed that this was happening to this family. She said to cope with the
stress she would go to church surrounded by people that new their situation and
loved them anyways. She said that she always made sure she ate all of her lunch
just in case dinner was slim. She said that her mother and father who were both
out of work for 2 years, went to support groups for families that were
unemployed. She said it was a tough time, and I could only imagine what she
went through.
After hearing her story I thought that more people than just
her have to deal with these issues. Someone in my home town dealing with this
was shocking enough, but what about the children now that are suffering from a
major stress in their lives? I decided to research what countries had a lot of
stress. Some I already knew about, but I found some countries that all had the
same stressor that I was unaware of. The countries are: Bahrain, Qatar, and
Yemen. They are all under the stress of
lack of water. I never thought of this as a stressor – but it is a pretty big
one! I use water for everything, as most people do. I could not imagine not
knowing if I was going to have water or not. I could not imagine living off of
the weather for survival. This affects all the people in these countries. There
is an organization and United Nations action to help these countries. The
campaign is called “Water for Life”. Their goal is to get water to all of the
countries of the world so that scare water will never be an issue again. Please
log onto to this website for more information: http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/scarcity.shtml.
Stress in early childhood will always happen. I hope that as
educators, we can find a way to help lessen the stress for these little kids.
