By Bernard Golden, Ph.D. — 2020
Aspiring to be perfect is very different than believing we need to be perfect.
Read on www.psychologytoday.com
CLEAR ALL
It’s hard to see a child unhappy. Whether a child is crying over the death of a pet or the popping of a balloon, our instinct is to make it better, fast. That’s where too many parents get it wrong, says the psychologist Susan David, author of the book “Emotional Agility.
1
The different ways your child behaves actually stems from a list of four complex emotions. Here’s how explain them to your child in a way they’ll understand so they can learn to manage them.
Wander any playground or mall, and at some point you are likely to observe a parent coaching her child to take deep breaths in and out to calm herself, or directing her to “use her words” versus hitting, kicking or grabbing.
Emotion coaching is the practice of talking with children about their feelings, and offering kids strategies for coping with emotionally difficult situations. The goal is to empathize, reassure, and teach. Does it make a difference? Yes.
Many teens get into trouble because of an inability to appropriately discharge feelings of intense anger. Teens become angry for various reasons and express these feelings in a multitude of ways, but all have in common the struggle of experiencing a painful emotion and not knowing how to manage it.