A book to help with worries
Our beautiful and happy little girl has been having lots of worries of late, and we have been searching around for things and ways to help her out. The worries are wide and sometimes unexpected-like worrying about the Crimean War and infection, or how infection gets into a body and how it spreads. It has turned bed time into a stressful experience and for us a deeply unsettling and unusual time. We are searching for things and ways to help her in any way we can. I’m fighting the urge to feel like I’m fumbling in the dark with absolutely no clue where I’m going! I know that we’re making mistakes along the way, but hopefully not irrevocable ones.
However, one of the things I think I may have got right is a book called My Huge Bag of Worries.
It’s a nice comforting book about a little girl who carries with her a bag of lots of different worries. The moral of the story is to ‘let your worries out into the open’. The little girl in the story tells her friendly next door neighbour, who very carefully works through each and every worry and packs them off, either to others, into the air, or to be shared. The final page is the bag being thrown high into the air, empty and not quite so large.
It’s a nice simple metaphor which my daughter has picked up immediately. We read it every time she feels the need to. One of the unexpected aspects of this book has been the opportunity to talk about her responses to the little girl’s worries-I think it helps my daughter to see someone like her and feel she’s helping her by offering advice. It doesn’t matter that we’ve read the book a few times as she still seems to gain comfort from it.
I would really recommend this book to anyone who has a sensitive child.
That’s really interesting. What sort of age is the book aimed at?
Hi, I think it would work best with 3-7 year olds. It’s a great sharing book for obvious reasons, but I think independent readers and older children may still get something out of it.
Thanks, DD1 is 5 and I think she might like it.
No problem, it’s a lovely book and really helpful too.
Wow, this sounds like a really wonderful book. I love the metaphor – the literal bag full of worries that the girl is carrying. I also love that this encourages talking about a child’s fears and worries to get them out in the open. I know a few sensitive kids who could benefit from something like this!
Thanks for linking up to the Kid Lit Blog Hop!
Thank you. Yes, it is really useful as well as nicely written and illustrated. I believe that it’s used by professionals too in counselling, but we came across it quite by accident. Nice to meet you.
It’s nice to meet you, too! I’m enjoying exploring your blog and I just pinned this post on Pinterest.
Thank you again!
Oh, I’m so glad you were able to find such a great resource. I absolutely love how the character is listened to and that her worries are not minimized. Children really want to feel like they are being listened to. If only they had the life experience to help them realize that their worries are so small and that many things they worry about, they have no control over – a “letting go” so to speak.
Thanks for sharing this fantastic book in the Kid Lit Blog Hop.
Absolutely. As parents, it’s really hard to support. Since I started talking about this though, I’ve spoken to lots of parents who are having the same or similar experiences. It doesn’t feel quite so lonely!
Hoppin the Kid Lit Hop! It is really amazing how a small child can actually have worries but it definitely happens. Sometimes we think over the most trivial things. But it is a big deal to them. So be patient with their tender hearts!
Absolutely, and each worry matters equally to my daughter-the other day she was worrying about Cholera bless her.
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