Supporting Attachment When a Parent Works FIFO
Working away from home or participating in a fly-in fly-out (FIFO) schedule can be challenging for both parents and children. It’s crucial to help children understand and cope with the time apart from a parent.
It is important that families navigating FIFO have age appropraite conversatons with the children to supoprt them in navigating the complexity of a parent spending periods of time away from the family.
Potential topics Parents need to support children to know the following:
Reason for Absence: Explain why the parent is away, focusing on the positive aspects of their work and its importance.
Duration and Schedule: Provide a clear understanding of how long the parent will be away and when they’ll return.
Communication Plans: Reassure them about how and when they can stay in touch with the parent through calls, messages, or video chats.
Feelings and Emotions: Encourage them to express their feelings and validate their emotions about the parent being away.
Maintaining Connection: Discuss ways to stay connected and involved in the absent parent's life, such as sharing daily stories or keeping a journal.
Reassurance of Love: Emphasize that the parent's love remains constant despite the physical distance.
These books will assist you in these conversations with your children.
The Invisible String
The Invisible String the perfect tool for coping with all kinds of separation anxiety, loss and grief. In this relatable and reassuring contemporary classic, a mother tells her two children that they're all connected by an invisible string. 'That's impossible!' the children insist, but still they want to know more: 'What kind of string?' The answer is the simple truth that binds us all: An Invisible String made of love. Even though you can't see it with your eyes, you can feel it deep in your heart and know that you are always connected to the ones you love. Does everybody have an Invisible String? How far does it reach? Does it ever go away? This heartwarming picture book for all ages explores questions about the intangible yet unbreakable connections between us and opens up deeper conversations about love.
My Boomerang Dad
“My Boomerang Dad” discussing feelings children may have surrounding one parent working away, the characters are easy for children to identify with and relate to, and demonstrates the comparison that the working away parent is like a boomerang- it always returns from where it came. This book not only encourages positive family discussion around feelings but comes complete with a ‘helpful tips for parents’ page at the back.
FIFO & Me
A fun rhyming book educating little minds of the fly-in-fly-out world.
Follow a brother and sister learning where their Mum or Dad goes when they head off to work in the Australian mining industry. Learn where they stay, the process of mining and more.
My FIFO Dad At Christmas
My dad is a FIFO worker. This means that he has to catch an Aeroplane to get to work because it’s too far away to drive. Come along as these kids navigate through Christmas While their Dad is doing FIFO.