22 Oct 2022
#048 Seven ways to keep your cool when your child is pushing your buttons
The biggest gift you can give your children when they are struggling with big emotions, when they are frustrated or upset, is to be the calm in their storm.
It is your parenting superpower.
When you can come to the situation with calm, you can be the confident leader your child needs in that moment. You can model emotional regulation and help your child co-regulate with your balanced system.
If you join them in their upset, their frustration, their meltdown, their drama, then both your limbic systems go into fight, flight or freeze response. Neither of you can think well and nobody is going to be able to regulate their emotions very well.
If you aren’t able to stay calm, that’s when you start to take things personally, when you start to view your child as the enemy, you lose your perspective, you get swept away by thoughts like - “They’re manipulating me, they’re doing this on purpose, they should know better, how dare they behave like this after all I’ve done for them…