Should Kids Get Mental Health Days? Our Kid Does [AUDIO]

The pandemic has taught us a lot of things including that we all need to take time for ourselves and that includes our kids. The other day Jenn came to me and said that she was going to take Ryan, our ten-year-old out of school for a couple of mental health days. She explained that the weather was going to be beautiful and since we just put a pool in, he could just enjoy the pool and be a kid. After all, she said, he's only ten once.

I have to admit, at first, I gave her an eye roll and said that I didn't understand why he needed entire days off from school to go swim. I said that he gets home from school around 2:30 which is plenty of time for him to enjoy our pool. But then she said that Ryan could use a couple of days to just be a kid, let loose, have a childhood, and decompress.

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A lightbulb went off in my head. Why not? Is it because I was conditioned to follow the rules? Kids go to school, have responsibilities, need to learn, and there is plenty of time for fun. Sure that's what I was trained to think. But something clicked when Jenn said that Ryan needs these days, these mental health days just like we all do. She is right.

If the last fifteen months taught us anything it's that we need to live in the moment but also take care of each other and more importantly ourselves. So that's what we did for Ryan. Ryan needed this. He's ten and he's only going to be ten once.

Listen to Jenn talk about her decision and Brian and me talk about if our parents gave us a mental health day when we were kids.