Exploring Identity in Kids
- Tanya Pivovar, RSW, MSW
- Sep 28
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 6
"A child has the right to be fully prepared to live an individual life." - United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
“I said I wanted to be a poet."
(The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath)
Mom/Dad, your child's identity, can help you support them in engaging with counselling. It may encourage them to seek a new and different place of safety for their possibilities. Kids need someone else to talk to. In engaging youth with social issues that affect their lives, awareness can be developed.
In learning about what is around us, we get to learn about ourselves. We get to value ourselves in so many different ways. We get to live our individual lives. Every kid has this right to become who they want to be. As parents, teachers and counsellors we get to open doors for possibilities with the children and youth around us.
The further we encourage them to explore their identities, the stronger their identities get to be. When we know ourselves, how much easier is it to take care of ourselves? How much easier is it to challenge the things that might hurt us? Bullies? Social media? Abusers? How much more powerful might they feel in seeing their lives for themselves? Kids do need routines and boundaries, however they also get to ask questions; to learn and become themselves.
You get to help kids find their identities through music, art, sports, dance; anything that might have meaning for them. They also get to have time on their
own and make informed choices for themselves.
Mom/dad, think of a time when you found it difficult to be yourself and difficult to challenge things when you might have been their age. What might have helped you feel a bit more like yourself? Feel a bit more heard and seen?
Remember being different, can be difficult, but that is how you get to be you. We all get to be who we get to be. Being a poet can be part of that. Mom, what would have you done to be even more you? Dad, what would have you done? We all have the right to be who we want to be.
The message that I leave with you, is to advocate for children and youth to explore their own identity.
If you need support navigating your child's wants, needs, and identity, I'd be happy to guide you through that journey.
Plath, S. (2005). The bell jar. New York: HarperPerennial.
Comments