Children

My 10 year old nephew rocks from side to side when standing... His dad died 6 months ago from cancer... Is this a problem?

[XxBrokenInsidexX]

Hello,
           I am so sorry for your family's loss. It sounds like your nephew is experiencing anxiety.. I myself am 23 years old and suffer from anxiety as well and at times when sitting especially when eating I find myself rocking. This is not only a response to anxiety but it's also a way of self comfort. I would recommend that your nephew speaks with a therapist as soon as possible because it's very easy for this anxiety to spiral out of control. It's completely normal for your nephew to be experiencing this and rocking may be comforting to him as he deals with the loss of his father... I wish you the best of luck and will keep your family in my thoughts and prayers!

[franceslee]

Could be that the rocking is a kind of calming thing for him.  I have anxiety and I constantly rock back & forth, doc said it was normal for me.

[greenlydia]

I am also very sorry for your loss.

I agree with XxBrokenInsidexX that your nephews rocking is a form of self-comfort. I also wholeheartedly agree that he should get some therapy to help deal with his grief. A good child psychologist won't be able to stop his pain, but he will learn that ALL his feelings are normal, and that includes, most especially, the anger. I think that is probably the most damaging stage of grief for children. As adults, we understand that anger is part of the process, but a child can become emotionally crippled because they can't understand how they can be so angry, even feel hatred, towards someone they love so much.

I'm sure his mother is trying her best to comfort him, but I know how difficult it is when you're in so much pain yourself.

Please don't hesitate to bring up this subject with his mother, (IF you're on good terms with her) otherwise ask someone else to broach this subject.

I think your nephew is very lucky to have someone who obviously cares so much about him.
I wish all of you peace
God Bless
Greenlydia

[nursegirl6572]

Aw, my heart breaks for your nephew.  I agree with all of the above, that therapy would be very helpful to him to help him work through and understand his vast range of emotions.  For a child, they don't understand why they feel anything else but sad, which is all they know is to be expected during grief, like lydia stated.

I wish youe nephew the very best, and hope he finds some comfort soon.  The one great thing about kids is that they are very resiliant.