Decorate a can, cut a slot in the lid, and give your child somewhere physical to put a worry once they’ve written it down. The Worry Can gives shape to something that otherwise just sits, vague and unexamined, in a child’s head.
Why this matters
Children often carry worries without ever putting them into words, which can let a small concern grow larger simply from going unexamined. Writing a worry down and physically placing it somewhere, rather than just thinking about it, gives a child a concrete sense of having done something with it, and it creates a natural, low-pressure opening to talk the worry through with you, rather than carrying it alone.
What you need
A can or container with a reclosable lid. Coloured paper, markers, glue, and scissors. Small slips of paper for writing down worries.
How to play
Help your child decorate the outside of the can however they like, drawing or writing “worries” somewhere on it if they want. Cut a slot in the lid just large enough for a folded slip of paper to fit through.
Whenever a worry comes up, big or small, encourage your child to write or draw it on a slip of paper and post it into the can. There’s no requirement to share it right away, simply having somewhere to put it is often enough in the moment.
Making space to talk about what’s inside
Check in regularly, perhaps once a week, and ask your child if they’d like to open the can together and talk through a few of the worries inside. Let them choose which ones to share rather than reading through all of them yourself, and keep the conversation calm and curious rather than quick to reassure or dismiss.
Why this works better than simply being told not to worry
Telling a child “don’t worry about it” rarely makes a worry smaller, and can sometimes make a child feel unheard on top of whatever they were already feeling. A worry can does the opposite: it takes the worry seriously enough to give it a physical place to go, while keeping the whole process light enough that it doesn’t become its own source of stress.
A note on persistent worries
If the same worry keeps reappearing in the can week after week, or if your child seems to be carrying a genuinely heavy load of anxiety that doesn’t ease with this kind of regular check-in, that’s worth a conversation with a paediatrician or child therapist, who can help in ways a can and a slip of paper alone can’t.
A decorated can, a stack of small slips of paper, and a regular, unhurried moment to open it together gives a child somewhere real to put what’s on their mind, which is often the first step toward actually talking it through.
