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I don’t know about you guys, but towards the end of the year, life has taken a toll on my mental health as well as my immune system causing burnout. It seems as if work obligations and trying to make ends meet are increasing my stress, prompting me to take mental health/sick days off. As an adult, we often get mentally and physically tired, and I can only imagine how children can also experience this increased need for mental health/sick days.

As a child, you go through the stress of navigating life as an inexperienced human, as well as physically meeting the demands that society imposes, such as going to school and fulfilling extracurricular activities, which can be tough.

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So what are the signs of burnout so we can be proactive and avoid burnout for our kids? Some of the signs include but are not limited to:

1. Procrastination: Procrastination is waiting to do something until later due to a lack of motivation. If your child normally is a motivated individual and is on top of their school work and you notice that they are not as enthusiastic about completing their assignments, this might be a sign that they are suffering from burnout. If you have to provide them with numerous reminders to get their work done and your child makes excuses then this can be a sign.

2. Apathy: If your child starts to lack emotion and stops caring about things that they usual care about then this can also be a sign of burnout. For example if you ask how your child’s day went and they simply respond by saying “Ok” without elaborating in detail as they normally would.

3. Avoidance in situations: Your child tends to be more avoidant and doesn’t want to partake in activities such as hanging out with friends after school when they usually thoroughly enjoy this. Instead, your child now comes up with excuses as to why they should not go.

4. Negative attitude: Your child’s usual positive attitude has subsided and now they have a more negative outlook on life. For example, you hear your child say "There’s no point doing this” to the activities that they used to enjoy and now they view the activity as burdensome.

5. Anxiety or the feeling of Fear: Your child use to enjoy going to school but now the thought of getting up in the morning and going creates so much anxiety in which they cry at the mention of it or they continuously worry about it.

6. Concentration Issues: Your child’s concentration has decreased to focusing for about 5 minutes before loosing interest. Their attention span used to be twice as long.

7. Irritability and Anger: Your child seems to have a quicker fuse and gets easily annoyed or upset by little things that didn’t bother them before.

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