What’s On speaks to Dubai-based clinical psychologist Dr Sara Daly-Butz to share expert advice for parents navigating conversations with their children during uncertain times
With schools across the UAE shifting to distance learning and routines changing for many families, children may begin asking difficult questions about what is happening around them.
For parents, knowing how much to explain, and how to respond in a calm and reassuring way, can feel challenging. To help guide families through these conversations, Dr Sara Daly-Butz from Insights Psychology shares practical advice on answering difficult questions, recognising common stress responses in children and helping young people feel more secure during uncertain times.
Below, Dr Sara from shares her expert advice for families in Dubai on how to talk to children about uncertainty and help them feel safe, calm and supported during times of change.
Dr Sara Daly-Butz
How to talk to Children about uncertainty
For children and teenagers, sudden changes to daily life can raise difficult questions and strong emotions. Children may ask questions such as “Are we going to be okay?” or “Why is this happening to us?”. For many parents, knowing how to respond can feel challenging. As a clinical psychologist working with Insights Psychology in Dubai, I often support families navigating uncertainty. While every child responds differently, there are practical ways adults can help children feel calmer and more secure during times like this.
How to respond to difficult questions
When children hear about conflict or sudden disruptions to routine, their brains are essentially asking one core question: “Am I safe?” Because children do not yet have the cognitive maturity to fully understand global events, uncertainty can feel overwhelming. Their imagination may fill in gaps with scenarios that are more frightening than reality. For this reason, children benefit from simple, honest and contained explanations rather than detailed discussions.
For example, if a child asks: “Are we going to be okay? You might respond: “Right now we are safe. Adults are working to manage the situation. Our job today is to keep going with our routines and take care of each other.”
If a child asks: “Why is this happening to us?” A helpful response might be: “Sometimes difficult things happen in the world that we cannot control. What we can focus on is staying together and continuing with our day.”
Parents often try to help by providing extensive reassurance or long explanations. However, it is usually best to avoid speculating about events or discussing adult worries in front of children. Calm, clear answers are often the most reassuring.
Understanding children’s reactions
Children may not always express stress directly through words. Instead, they may show changes in behaviour. Common reactions during uncertain times can include irritability, clinginess, repetitive questioning, restlessness, or withdrawal. These reactions are stress responses rather than misbehaviour. Understanding this can help adults respond with patience and reassurance rather than frustration.
Techniques to support children during moments of distress
There are several simple techniques that can help children regulate their emotions when they feel overwhelmed. One helpful strategy is grounding through the senses, sometimes known as the 5-4-3-2-1 technique. You can ask your child to name five things they can see, four things they can feel, three things they can hear, two things they can smell and one thing they can taste. This helps bring attention back to the present moment.
Another useful tool is box breathing, which helps calm the nervous system. Encourage children to breathe in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds, and hold again for four seconds.
Parents can also help children understand their feelings by explaining that the brain has an “alarm system”. When something feels frightening or uncertain, that alarm becomes louder. Calming activities help the body switch that alarm back down.
Finally, maintaining predictable routines is one of the most powerful ways to support children. Even when schedules change, keeping familiar rhythms such as mealtimes, bedtime routines and study periods signals to the brain that life is continuing and that things are safe.
Helping parents find calm
Children often take emotional cues from the adults around them. Psychologists refer to this as co-regulation; children borrow calm from the nervous systems of the adults caring for them. In practice, this means that a calm adult presence can be one of the most powerful stabilising influences for a child. Of course, this can be difficult when parents themselves feel anxious or overwhelmed. One helpful step is setting boundaries around news consumption. Constantly checking updates or scrolling through social media can increase stress. Instead, it can be helpful to check reliable updates at specific times during the day. It is also useful to focus on what is within your control. While global events may be uncertain, families can still maintain routines, spend time together and create moments of calm at home.
Supporting the Community
Our team is doing its best to respond to the needs of the community during this time. Alongside our clinical services, our Adults by Insights team is supporting corporate teams and organisations by delivering webinars focused on helping adults manage stress and uncertainty. Our Insights Psychology DMCC and Therapy by Insights teams are also hosting webinars for parents and nursery staff, focusing on how to support younger children during periods of disruption and change. These conversations serve as an important reminder that emotional wellbeing is a shared responsibility across families, schools, workplaces, and the wider community.
A final thought
Feeling unsettled during uncertain events is a normal response. With calm adults, predictable routines and supportive conversations, children are remarkably resilient.
Sometimes the most reassuring message we can give children is a simple one:
“We are here, we are together, and we will take things one day at a time.”
