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Parenting Through Anxiety in an Uncertain Year

Parenting Through Anxiety in an Uncertain Year

Last updated on: May 31, 2026 at 6:12 pm by M.T. Mom

Parenting Through Anxiety in an Uncertain Year 2026-05-31T18:12:01-05:00 M.T. Mom

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parents walking down a sidewalk holding the hand of a young child.

We get to hold their hand, smaller than our own for a short season. | Image by Pexels from Pixabay

How should we go about parenting through the anxiety of an uncertain year? Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for it. As Christians, we are blessed to know that we aren’t in the trenches alone. Now more than ever we must remember to lean on our faith and let Jesus take the wheel.

Politics, school shootings, Hantavirus, the cost of gas, Ebola, the expense of groceries, arrested perverted cruise employees, and Epstein, oh my… what a time to be alive.

The world is a scary place that we, as adults, often feel deeply. The media thrives on informing us of every single detail of every single disaster, or disaster in the making, on a global scale. The one guarantee that is ever certain is that nothing is. Through conversation and modeling, we can parent through anxiety in an uncertain year while teaching our kids compassion.

It’s important to recognize that it’s not just the grown-ups who are consuming the all-encompassing anxiety of modern media. My VBS roots may be showing here, but “Be Careful Little Eyes/Ears What You See/Hear” is good advice.

Unfortunately, we cannot keep the precious owners of those little eyes and ears in a bubble (I’ve gotten estimates), so we are left with the next best thing—parenting them through it. The never-ending hum of modern technology creates a cacophony that is difficult, if not impossible, for us as grown-ups to ignore. Imagine the anxiety this creates for our kids.

The problem with anxiety is that it’s contagious.

The truth is, we can no more ease our anxiety than our children can. Our charge is not to hide the world from our kids, but anchor them, as well as ourselves, in our unchanging God. The world changes every day, and that is terrifying. But our God doesn’t. He is the same today as He was yesterday and as He will be tomorrow, and there is comfort in that.

So, what do we do? Let’s talk about it.

Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask First

If you’ve ever flown on a commercial airplane, the first thing the flight attendant explains in case of an emergency is to put on your oxygen mask first. This is because you can’t take care of someone else if you pass out.

The same can be true when it comes to calming anxiety. One cannot pass peace on to their children if they don’t possess it themselves.

Our first response to cultural or economic stress must be to pivot to prayer, establishing a “guard” over our hearts before we address our children’s fears.

As someone who struggles with anxiety at a clinical level, my go-to scripture is always Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV). “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Guard the Gates

Guarding our hearts includes our screens (“Oh, be careful, little eyes, what you see”). Establishing healthy boundaries around how we consume media can go a long way toward protecting our children from age-inappropriate adult stresses and helping them focus on what is good and true.

Nonstop news and commentary create an echo chamber of panic. Maybe the kids hear hushed conversation between the adults about current events or perhaps we scroll TikTok while the kids are playing and they pick up tidbits of news or gossip.

It often seems the kids aren’t paying attention, but I promise you, they are. One practical way to ease needless fear and anxiety is to be a good steward of what enters your home. Choosing peace guards the heart every time.

Proverbs 4:23 (NIV) reminds us that “Above all else, [we are to] guard [our] heart, for everything [we] do flows from it.”

Change the Narrative from Fear to Sovereignty

Children tend to ask the best, sometimes hardest questions, and just because we guard their hearts doesn’t mean we avoid letting them learn about their world. The adage different strokes for different folks plays in here.

Hear me out. We approach answering questions with our eight- and nine-year-old boys differently than with our sixteen-year-old.

Kids need to see our biblical viewpoint in reference to the world around them, before the world gets to them with all the noise.

I think moments of anxiety or fear, while uncomfortable for all involved, are an opportunity to flip the script—we can shift the narrative from fear to sovereignty.

Reframing issues like economic stress, cultural tension, and nonstop news cycles to show children that, while the nature of our world and its rapid changes are terrifying, God remains unchanged and steadfast.

This helps us all process our fears in a way rooted in faith. This means that when children ask hard questions about the economy or the future, we don’t invalidate their fear. Instead, we reframe it by reminding them of God’s track record while addressing their concerns by answering on their age level, truthfully. God commands us as Christians to be “strong and courageous.” Scripture specifically tells us, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9, NIV).

So, how do we parent through anxiety? I think it starts with teaching our children that courage isn’t the absence of fear; but the presence of God.

We can share age-appropriate family testimonies about how God has provided or protected in the past and how that has shaped our own faith.

I’ll give three examples:

Children

We always wanted three kids. The path to get there wasn’t a straight line. Our oldest son has grown up knowing he is our sunshine baby. We had three miscarriages after him. I’ve had twelve surgeries and minor health issues between him and our younger two kiddos.

There is only an eighteen-month age difference between them. We use this story to illustrate that sometimes God’s answer to prayer isn’t “no,” but “not right now.” For whatever reason, we were not where God wanted us in those first six years of trying to grow our family. They know their stories as rainbow babies. In fact, our middle son is named after Noah for that reason and our youngest was named by his big brother.

Health and Healing

When our youngest was six months old, he developed a rare seizure disorder that only 15% of children have a positive outcome following treatment.

He is in that 15%, and not only that, but the neurologist himself jumped up and down at discharge, telling us that he is a walking miracle—when I tell you we hit our knees in prayer hard, I have never prayed and cried out so much. To this day, we exalt our Lord and Savior. He and He alone healed our baby.

Finances

My husband and I both lost our jobs at the end of last summer. We worked hard, received help from family, and survived—God saw to it that while we struggled, our needs were met by His hand. The Lord’s provision ensured that despite the struggle we were able to keep our apartment and food on our table. We talk to the kids about these fears on their levels while modeling faith and prayer.

Build a Solid Foundation

It is best to build on rock rather than sand.

While the year may be uncertain, a foundation built on faith is not. Remember the parable of the wise builder who built his house on the rock (Matthew 7:24-25, NIV). When the winds blew and the water rose, the house never fell.

Remember, in the trenches of parenthood, stressful years are a discipleship opportunity for us. These moments of anxiety allow us, as dads and moms, to model for our kiddos.

When the world shakes, they get to watch us stand firm on the rock. And while we hold that line, they experience a sense of safety and security. With a little luck and a lot of blessing, that lesson will come back to them when they are in our shoes, not too far out in the future.

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