When the World Feels Like a Scary Place: Essential Conversations for Anxious Parents and Worried Kids

An urgent and necessary book, When the World Feels Like a Scary Place brings solutions to a problem that is only going to get worse—how bad things happening in the world affect our children, and how we can raise engaged and confident kids in spite of them. It’s an understatement to say we live in an age of anxiety. Political polarization, school shootings, income inequality, climate issues, sexual harassment, and more—whether it’s on the news or hitting closer to home, it’s impossible to tune out. Problem is, most children can’t put these issues in perspective, and parents, often anxious themselves, can have a hard time talking to their kids without making it worse. Dr. Abigail Gewirtz, a child psychologist and leading expert on families under stress, now offers a clear and truly practical guide to having the kind of tough conversations with your kids that really help. But it’s not just how to talk to your kids, it’s also what to say: The heart of the book is a series of conversation scripts, with actual dialogue, talking points, prompts, and insightful asides, each tailored for different ages and centered around different issues. She shows how to let the child lead. How to not make the problem worse by saying more than a child needs to know. How to check in with yourself to make sure your own anxiety doesn’t color the conversation. Along the way are tips about staying calm in an anxious world; the different ways children react to stress, and how parents can read the signs; and how parents can make sure they stay on the same page (stress often causes a rift between parents—Dr. Abi gives advice for dealing with this together). It’s a book needed now more than ever, offering a path of wholeness and security for both anxious parents and worried kids.