Living in a VUCA World

Living in a VUCA World

In 1985, Madonna had a huge hit singing about a “material girl” living in a “material world.” Children today face a different challenge, living in a VUCA world — a world that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. A military term used to describe the unsettled world after the terrorist attacks in 2001, VUCA describes the chaotic times following a disrupting event, such as the recent pandemic and social unrest, in which anxiety rises to unprecedented and unrelenting heights. 

Anxiety, once intermittent, is now constant. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “Anxiety is now the number-one mental health disorder for both adults and children.” Parents, caught in the unrelenting news cycle and job tensions, pass anxieties along to their children. Pressured by the unreasonable expectations of society, parents demand high academic, athletic, musical, artistic, and social achievement from their children. Children give up their individual interests to meet parent expectations. Social media applauds winners and ridicules “losers” while removing students from genuine human interactions and friendships. Children, once innocent of the world’s pressures, sink under the weight of them.

In her book, Ready or Not: Preparing Kids to Thrive in an Uncertain and Rapidly Changing World, educational consultant Madeline Levine writes that children living in a VUCA world can feel powerless, unintelligent, and worthless leading them to feelings of “demoralization and victimization.” Luckily, parents can help children develop the skills necessary for thriving in an uncertain world.

The first step is to examine your coping skills. How do you deal with anxiety? Do you fall apart, blame others, predict gloom and doom? Or do you look at troubles as opportunities, times to invent creative solutions, and to find light in the darkness? Do you see yourself as part of the problem or as part of the solution? Do you complain or make plans? Levine writes that the “well-being of parents has a critical and continuing impact on our children’s well-being.” In other words, parents are models for their children. Parents who cope well will have children who cope well.

After developing their skills, parents can teach their children the skills necessary to thrive in today’s world. Levine suggests cultivating emotional intelligence, “the ability to recognize, understand, and manage one’s own emotions and the emotions of others,” self-regulation, “the internal guidance system that allows us to direct our own behavior and control our impulses,” and engagement, an “optimism and enthusiasm about learning.” Knowing that they can take a deep breath, take time to think, do a little research, make a plan, and believe that they will succeed when stresses come, give children a sense of power over circumstances. They learn to act, not react, in situations of stress. 

Parents must make their homes safe places — places where children can be themselves, explore their own interests, feel that they are an important and contributing member of the family, and absolutely believe that they are loved absolutely. A parent’s love conquers a VUCA world when it is constant, unwavering, honest, and sure. So, instead of “anxious children” living in an “anxious world,” your children can rest securely in their parent’s love. 

Stay calm, and parent on. 

(All quotations are from Ready or Not: Preparing Kids to Thrive in an Uncertain and Rapidly Changing World, by Madeline Levine. I highly recommend it!)