Do your child’s public tantrums leave you hesitant to go to the grocery store? You’ve probably noticed by now that the words “calm down” do little to relax an overwrought toddler.
If you want a less stressful parenting experience, teaching your children to identify and manage their feelings is vital. Here are eight smart ways to teach your children emotional regulation and help them succeed in life.
1. Work It Out
People often talk about the fight-or-flight response to stress, but in reality, folks respond to perceived threats in one of four ways: fight, flight, freeze or fawn.
2. Act It Out
Guess what? Playing charades doubles as physical activity. It also provides an outlet for your children to understand their emotions and express them in healthy ways.
Why not invest in a feelings chart or print a free one online and use it for your game? Select an emotion and have your child act out how someone experiencing it would behave. Use the teachable moments that arise to say things like, “Is there a better way to express anger besides throwing things?”
3. Puppet Play
When your child has to manage “big feels,” it might help to use toys to process their emotions. Break out their dolls or make some simple puppets so that they can act out whatever is upsetting them through surrogate play.
As your child to perform their play for you. After the show, discuss ways that the characters could handle their emotions differently.
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