May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Growing up, mental health was simply not discussed. It wasn't a topic at the dinner table, in the hallways at school, or even in hushed conversations between adults. And yet, the feelings were always there. The anxiety before a big day, the sadness that arrived without warning, the weight of emotions that had no name and nowhere to go.

That silence didn't mean those feelings didn't exist. There seemed to be two gears: happy, or faking happiness until you eventually got there.

For so many of us, that was the only model we knew. Push through. Smile. Move on. The idea that you might need language, support, or tools to navigate the inner life? That simply wasn't part of the script.

How the world has changed

And then something shifted. Mental health became something we could name, discuss, and, most importantly, support. That shift is one of the most meaningful things to witness as a parent. Our kids are growing up in a world where their emotional lives are taken seriously. Where there is space, vocabulary, and real support around what they're feeling. Where a hard day doesn't have to be hidden, it can be understood.

I am so grateful for that.

So what is mental health, exactly?

Mental health is a state of emotional, psychological, and social well-being that influences how we think, feel, act, handle stress, and relate to the people around us.

It's not a fixed destination, it's a living, breathing part of who we are. And understanding that is just the starting point. The next step is learning how to manage it: how to cope, how to ask for help, how to sit with difficult feelings and find your way through them. These are skills, real, learnable skills, and like any skill, they are best learned early.

Meet anxiety: the lifelong passenger

It shows up when we try something new, when we walk into a room full of strangers, when a test is on the horizon, when life feels uncertain. It's not a flaw. It's not weakness. It's a very human response to a very human experience.

But here's what changes everything: when a child can recognize anxiety — can name it, understand why it's there, and know what to do with it, they stop being controlled by it. They learn to surf the wave instead of being pulled under by it.

The earlier a child builds that relationship with their own emotions, the more resilient, self-aware, and capable they become, not just now, but for life.

This May, as we mark Mental Health Awareness Month, the most powerful thing we can do for the children in our lives isn't to protect them from hard feelings, it's to give them the tools to face those feelings with confidence.

If you're looking for a place to start, the Anxiety Toolkit for Kids (Ages 6–12) is a gentle, age-appropriate tools that helps children understand anxiety, explore what it feels like in their body, and build practical coping strategies. Not because anxiety goes away, but because with the right tools, it doesn't have to be in the driver's seat.

Every child deserves to grow up knowing that what they feel matters, that they have words for it, and that they are never alone in it.