The Huge Bag of Worries by Virginia Ironside tells the story of Jenny, a happy girl with a lovely mum and dad, a great brother, a dog named Loftus, best friends and a wonderful teacher at school. But just lately, Jenny has started worrying.
She worries about her weight, her arguing parents, her grades at school, and the departure of her best friend. She grows gloomier and gloomier and before long, she notices she has quite a big bag of worries. And this bag follows her everywhere: to school, to the toilet, even sticking by her when she watches TV. She tries ignoring the bag, but it doesn’t help. She tries throwing it away, but it always came back. She even tries locking it out, but when she returns to her bedroom, there it is, waiting for her!
Exasperated and exhausted by the weight of her worries, she eventually breaks down outside her home, where a wise, old neighbour lady notices her distress and offers to help Jenny with her bag of worries.
Identifying Mental Health
Throughout The Huge Bag of Worries, Jenny experiences many issues that can affect mental health. Although everything in Jenny’s life appears positive at the start of the story, her bag of worries grows bigger and bigger until the weight, the burden of her worries becomes too much to bear and she breaks down.
The Huge Bag of Worries is useful to help you understand that life doesn’t always stay positive and, while it sometimes seems that the weight of your worries may grow too great to manage, you cannot ignore or attempt to hide from your problems as a way to deal with them. Sharing worries with those who care about you, or with those older and wiser, can help you understand that many of us share the same concerns and, sometimes just discussing those concerns can make them seem more manageable. It can also help you understand that some worries are simply not yours at all and that while you may be concerned, you are not responsible.
Your rights
The Government in Wales has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), stating that children and young people have rights, no matter who they are, where they live or what they believe in. Among the articles listed are:
- Article 2, which states that all children have the rights set out in the UNCRC, no matter who they are, where they live, what their parents do, what language they speak, what their religion is, whether they are boy or girl, what their culture is, whether they have a disability, whether they are rich or poor;
- Article 12, which states that parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child;
- Article 13, which states that all children have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to speak, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice;
- Article 17, which states that parties recognise the important function performed by the mass media and shall ensure that the child has access to information and material from a diversity of national and international sources, especially those aimed at the promotion of his or her social, spiritual and moral well-being and physical and mental health; and
- Article 25, which states parties recognise the right of a child who has been placed by the competent authorities for the purposes of care, protection or treatment of his or her physical or mental health to a periodic review of the treatment provided to the child and all other circumstances relevant to his or her placement.
Beyond the UNCRC, the Welsh Government has implemented “Together for Mental Health,” a Cross-Government Strategy setting out goals for improving mental health and mental health services in Wales. This Strategy covers all ages; children and young people, adults of working age and older people.
What does the Strategy include to help you?
Sporting Activities: Exercise can have an important role in mental wellbeing. Getting involved in the habit of exercise will help you to be healthy. The Welsh Government will be implementing more play areas, cycle paths, places to go walking, safe streets and green open spaces.
Arts and Culture: Taking part in arts and culture can help improve your mental health because it helps you to relax, express who you are and improve confidence and self-esteem through drama, literature, music and art.
Schools: Schools play an important role in your life. There are school-based counsellors to help you with issues like bullying and depression.
In my opinion…
I really like how Virginia Ironside uses the image of an actual bag of physical things to represent a child’s worries that must be carried around with her. I think we can all relate to this idea but I think it is a particularly effective way of getting children to visualise and conceptualise an issue that deals with the emotional and intangible.
Look out for more blogs in the ‘Reading my Rights’ series.
About the Author
I’m Adam, from Blaenau Gwent South Wales. I have just finished my first year of my LPC in Swansea University. After university, I hope to be a successful practicing solicitor.