This is a tough financial year and it will be more difficult for parents now facing back-to-school expenses. Some parents have lost their jobs and businesses; others have to take up an additional job or business on the side to contend with increasing financial demands. Fortunately, the basic principles of parenting are still very useful in the current financial crisis.

Keep the end in mind: Don't lose sight of the kind of parent you want to be and the kind of children you would like to raise. Write down your family mission statement and hang it up for everyone to see. Parenting is definitely more challenging than having children. At the same time, hardly anything can replace the joy that children bring to our humdrum lives.

Plan ahead

Be proactive and put first things first: Plan ahead of time. Cut back, save and find a creative way out. Recite the mantra of the Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. Have weekly financial family meetings to plan for the following week. Set up a saving competition among the siblings. A lunch box with some homemade meals may be a healthy alternative to the daily lunch money when it is hard to keep up. Prioritise by taking non-essential items off your shopping list. Nutritious food is important, but fattening fast food is not, even if children love it and 'love you' for buying it for them. Ask always, is this a need or just a want?

Understand and be understood: Find out what the children think about the things they are hearing and seeing on television about the worldwide economic meltdown. Ask if they are worried about how it will affect them. And yes, talk about your situation and how they may have to roll with it. Keep it simple and age appropriate. Children become anxious when you appear hopeless. Maintain a positive attitude; help them realise that crises are part of life and not the end of the world. Reassure them that the family is going to work it out. Humour is helpful.

Think win-win: Focus on what is not lost - family, friendships and faith. Family should help each other, a friend in need is a friend indeed, and through the help of God (and Church) many things are possible. Don't hesitate to seek help and help others when you can.

Sharpen the saw: Teach the children, by example, to value people for who they are and not for what they have, eat, wear or drive. Don't allow the money problem to eat up all your bonding time. Eat together, play together and pray together.

Synergise: This crisis is also a great opportunity to synergise, to relinquish the current way of selfish, materialistic thinking and to rebuild the villages that would raise our children into caring, resilient, well-adjusted adults.

Yes, we can!

Together we can! Yes, we can!

Every day people battle crises of one type or another. Learning the skills to deal with them places us in a better position to overcome. Join the Jamaica Psychiatric Association at its Conference 2009 to find out more about "Rebuilding lives After Crisis". The conference takes place on August 16, at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston. For more information, call 927-2492 or email uwipsych@gmail.com.

Dr Ganesh Shetty is a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.