Parenting is the activity of raising a child: teaching, guiding, and providing care. What are the particular issues when parenting in and following traumatic events? Such events are sudden, unanticipated, and potentially deadly experiences, often leaving lasting, troubling memories. Given this, when children experience traumatic events, they need their world to retain a sense of normalcy and their parents to be a stable, predictable part of that world. Parents may be able to serve as a source of comfort and strength, but effects of the traumatic event may make it difficult to parent effectively.

Parenting plays a foundational role for children and in their ability to respond to a trauma in a resilient fashion. Both during and after a traumatic event, children need help and ...