The Huge Bag of Worries

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Article 12, which states that parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child; The Huge Bag of Worries is useful to help you understand that life doesn’t always stay positive and, while it sometimes seems that the weight of your worries may grow too great to manage, you cannot ignore or attempt to hide from your problems as a way to deal with them. Sharing worries with those who care about you, or with those older and wiser, can help you understand that many of us share the same concerns and, sometimes just discussing those concerns can make them seem more manageable. It can also help you understand that some worries are simply not yours at all and that while you may be concerned, you are not responsible.

Sporting Activities: Exercise can have an important role in mental wellbeing. Getting involved in the habit of exercise will help you to be healthy. The Welsh Government will be implementing more play areas, cycle paths, places to go walking, safe streets and green open spaces. Schools: Schools play an important role in your life. There are school-based counsellors to help you with issues like bullying and depression. One of the activities I like to do after reading the book is to give a child a bag and using potatoes add them to the bag one at a time so they get a real feel of how worries can weigh you down. After putting a few potatoes in then take one out at a time as you offload those worries to to someone. The bag feels lighter and you can feel lighter and happier.

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There could have been more information about some of the worries that the other characters have, it is helpful to see that for example Mum and Dad also have worries but this could have been talked about more. There are lots of worries in the bag but none are talked about in too much detail, it would have been good to maybe name and explore some in a bit more detail at the end to help with sorting them into groups. It is a perfect story for children who are feeling anxious or for when you want to discuss strategies about what to do when we have a worry, as we all do at some point. My own children have loved this book, especially with the uncertainty of COVID-19. My youngest (aged 6) asked me to read it over and over again.

To help your child open up and discuss their emotions, you can start by asking your children how they are feeling; are they angry, sad, happy, scared or worried? You can then identify what might be making them feel this way. Reinforce the idea that it’s okay for your child to feel like this and that we all experience different emotions. By validating their feelings, it helps to build trust between you and your child.

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Our Worry Wobbles intervention is fab for working with a group but I thought for working one to one this Worry wobbles workbook might be… Protective Behaviours uses 7 strategies. One of these is called One Step Removed. This is a strategy that allows people to explore their feelings and thoughts using the 3rd person so it is not personal to them. Using the Huge Bag of Worries we can use puppets or characters, in this case we used an elf and asked, ‘If the elf had a bag of worries what might be in it?’.

Beyond the UNCRC, the Welsh Government has implemented “Together for Mental Health,” a Cross-Government Strategy setting out goals for improving mental health and mental health services in Wales. This Strategy covers all ages; children and young people, adults of working age and older people.If you’re feeling crafty, making a Worry Worm is a great way to help your children open up about their emotions. My favourite character is the old lady who lives next door because she has lots of good advice and she is very helpful and a good friend to Jenny. There were lots of different characters in the book who Jenny could ask for help, I like how we see lots of different people she could ask and how we realise everyone can need help sometimes. The story is a great example of how we will all feel sometimes, and it makes it easy to see how worries can build up and affect all areas of our lives, even for grown-ups like parents or teachers. You can also help your children to relieve anxiety and stress with this Homemade Stress Ball activity.

We are passionate about taking the curriculum outdoors. That’s why we have created the first ever whole school training, Taking the Curriculum Outdoors: A Whole School Approach. Throughout The Huge Bag of Worries, Jenny experiences many issues that can affect mental health. Although everything in Jenny’s life appears positive at the start of the story, her bag of worries grows bigger and bigger until the weight, the burden of her worries becomes too much to bear and she breaks down. Exasperated and exhausted by the weight of her worries, she eventually breaks down outside her home, where a wise, old neighbour lady notices her distress and offers to help Jenny with her bag of worries. The Huge Bag of Worries by Virginia Ironside tells the story of Jenny, a happy girl with a lovely mum and dad, a great brother, a dog named Loftus, best friends and a wonderful teacher at school. But just lately, Jenny has started worrying. Virginia Ironside is best known as one of Britain's leading agony aunts. She started on WOMAN magazine before moving to THE SUNDAY MIRROR and TODAY newspapers. She now writes a weekly column for THE INDEPENDENT. She also appears regularly on radio and television on such programmes as Radio 4's 'Woman's Hour'. Her many books include self-help titles on subjects such as bereavement, as well as the children's spooky adventure series BURLAP HALL.Children’s Legal Centre Wales Response: Report by Children’s Commissioner for England on Strip Search of Children