Here’s Clark’s advice for coping with anxiety, along with some brief context from his mother.
“You must say your affirmations in your mouth and in your heart.”
“Another mom on Twitter talked about affirmations with their child before school. We tried it. Sometimes I tell him, “Say it like you mean it.” I think he translated it.”
“You say, ‘I’m brave for this meeting! I am in love! I smell good!’”
“He knows you can be afraid of something, so he talks about being brave about things. I like grammatical construction. I have never corrected it because I like it better. I don’t know where “I smell good” came out, but I like it. I will use it a lot.”
“You have to walk a lot. You have to understand. Like Dolly in a dinosaur. Because you got it.”
“He really loves Dolly Parton’s ‘Coat of Many Colors.’ When kids are making fun of her at school, she still came in and was brave and talked to those kids. I don’t know where the dinosaur thing came from.”
“Never put a skunk on a bus.”
“I don’t know what being nervous is all about.”
“Think about the donuts of your day!”
“We used to go to this little record store. There was a room in the back and a whole section of records for a dollar. I would take him down there with a dollar bill and he came back with a Burl Ives album from the 50s. There’s a song out there called “The Donut Song.” He says, ‘Mind the donut, not the hole.’ After listening to that song a lot, it became our thing. Every night in bed he tells me about his day’s donuts.”
“Even if you cry a little, you can think about potato chips!”
“When he’s upset, I sometimes tell him to think about the things he’s looking forward to. Chips are high on his list.”
“You have to take a deep breath and you have to do it again.”
“I’ve been teaching him breathing exercises when he gets upset.”
“Even if it’s a bad day, you can get a hug.”
“There have been so many times when I can’t do anything. I tell him, ‘Even if it’s a bad day, when you go home, I’ll hug you.’
Ms Todebush said she was surprised by the reaction. Some people were concerned that such a young child even needed the ability to cope with anxiety. She said Clark is an only child and he had no cousins or other children around during the pandemic. She added that she worked with him on coping skills to make the transition to school easier. His advice on the way to school made her realize how much he’s been paying attention. “He’s doing a lot better overall,” she said.
But most of the thousands of comments posted in response have been positive, she said. They include:
“Who is this kid and is he available for Zoom sessions?” asked one follower.
“Laughing at the knowledge, but in reality I’m here for the pandemic fries, little dude,” one fan said.
“Haven’t we all experienced being on a bus with a skunk, metaphorically?” asked another.
An artist who saw the thread even started selling a t-shirt depicting Dolly Parton in a dinosaur and has promised that the proceeds will go to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Ms. Parton has not commented on either the post or the T-shirt.
