With a subscription
After a mock
About 30 minutes, for ages 9 to 18.
The activity
The same routine after every practice paper: collect your child, give them something to eat, walk home, and ask nothing about the paper that day.
What it is for. A mock is practice. Doing the same thing after every one tells your child so, and stops a practice paper turning into a verdict on them.
- The first step. Before the first mock of the year, agree the routine with your child once, calmly: “After every practice paper we’ll do the same thing: something to eat, the walk home, and no talk about the paper that day.”
When to get help. If the worry is lasting for several weeks, getting worse, or affecting your child’s sleep, eating or wish to go to school, talk to their school and your GP. The routes under “If you need help right now”, at the foot of every page, are for when it cannot wait. If your child has hurt themselves, or talks about not wanting to be alive, stay calm, thank them if they have told you, don’t promise to keep it secret, and act that day: help them ask the surgery for an urgent appointment, and if it is closed, use the routes under “If you need help right now”, at the foot of every page. If your child tells you that someone is hurting them, stay calm, thank them for telling you, don’t promise to keep it secret, and act that day, using those routes; if the person hurting your child lives in your home or your child’s other home, go straight to children’s social care or the police. If your child is badly hurt, or may have taken too much of a medicine, get medical help straight away, even if they seem well.
The other four steps, and your part in it, are in the library.
The sheet that goes with it comes with a subscription: After a mock.
It goes with
- The 11+ Year. For parents whose child is preparing for school entrance exams.
- Perfectionism. For parents whose child can’t bear to get anything wrong.
The first chapter you open here is free to read in full.
Free on this subject
- School stress. What to do first, what helps, and who else can help. Free to read and to print.
- Perfectionism. What to do first, what helps, and who else can help. Free to read and to print.
Published by Kensington Square Therapy. Company No. 16707111. Written by therapists registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS). This page is not therapy, and not a substitute for professional support. The full library is at theparentbook.com.