Tips for Helping Your Perfectionist Child
Often, the kids and teens I work with inherit or learn a portion of their perfectionism from one or both parents.
There’s of course the biological component of anxiety, and then the environmental. So if you have a perfectionist parent, you’re much more likely to engage in perfectionist tendencies as well.
That perfectionism often gets in the way of school performance, turning assignments in on time, or feeling incapable of handling unexpected stressors.
Teaching healthier strategies:
So for parents who are perfectionists, be aware that your child is very likely to have the same struggles you do. But you also have a really great opportunity to teach and model anxiety management strategies, too.
Top tips for managing perfectionism in kids and teens:
Teach kids how to take a deep breath when they need to
Work on figuring out how to be "good enough"
Set time limits on how long they work on assignments
Help break things down to a set schedule
Recognize when perfectionist tendencies are starting to crop up, rather than just dealing with the aftermath
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