As kids start school and become more aware of how their skills and abilities stack up against their peers, building confidence can be a difficult task.

All kids go through behavioural rough patches, even kids with terrific parents. Sometimes rough patches are developmental, but they can also be a symptom of parenting traps.

Little minds can house some pretty big worries. From a young age, anxious kids can worry about everything from getting questions wrong on school tests and not having friends, to falling ill or even terrorist attacks.

As a parent, you want to do whatever you can to protect your child from feeling upset. Which can be a good parenting philosophy to follow…except when it comes to anxiety.