Introduction
A mental health day is taking time off not because you are ill or sick, but because you just want a break from your regular school or work chores. It means doing things that you want to do which are not done in a regular day. Adults take a mental health day, too by calling in sick at work even if they are physically fine. It's taking time off from the stress and tension associated with being in a work environment. Among children, there is a big debate whether parents should actually allow their kids to have a mental health day, skip school, miss class periods and homework.
History
Kids who are having a tough time at school or who at most feel that they just need time to rest and take a break from chores at school usually ask their parents to stay at home. It’s not common or unusual for a child to say that he/she doesn’t feel well and prefers to be at home. While parents think that it is the beginning of an illness or a flu that’s coming, they keep the child at home just to be on the safe side. Yet, these kids do not have physical symptoms of being sick such as elevated temperatures, fever, coughing, sneezing, headache or anything that remotely resembles to being ill. Yet, these children do not want to go to school because, they need time off.
Features
Letting kids have a mental health day once in a while can be good for them. Let us face it, school is stressful enough and maybe when everything gets too much, all we need is just a day off to get back in the swing of things. Your child can feel the same way and might need this day, free from school work and peer pressure to get back on track. While this is a great source of debate whether parents should actually allow a mental health day for their kids, there are pros and cons to this practice. While it is true that kids, can recharge themselves by taking a mental health day, there is always room for abuse, meaning that kids can use this as a form of excuse whenever they are just lazy to go to school.
Others argue that children do not really need a mental health day as they have enough vacation days such as weekends, public and school holidays. Who ever heard of a mental health day before? However, let’s not forget that parents still have control and they can see whether a child is faking it or not. In addition, a child who needs to have a mental health day every week is different from a kid who requests for one every 6 months or once a year. This is not a big deal as skipping school for a day will not make a huge difference. You can always ask what the homework was from the teacher or tell your child to copy notes that he/she missed from a classmate. This doesn’t mean, however, that it’s okay to have a mental health day every week or a few days. Granted that there is nothing wrong with your child physically, check if there is no real mental health problem when they ask for a mental day off. It might be a symptom of a mental illness or the beginning of one that should be attended to immediately.
Tips and comments
A mental health day is not only beneficial to the child. It is also a means to recuperate from stresses in school, exams, and even peer pressure. Talk to the guidance counselor if there are special needs of the child or there is too much time off being asked.
