Dealing with the
child’s emotions is like a roller coaster ride. Read on to know how to deal
with the changing emotions of children. Find tips for handling the child’s
emotions.
Parents often wish to have children who come in along with an instruction
manual. This is mostly because children are found to behave in myriad ways that
always perplex the parent. They are at a loss on how to deal with the changing
emotions of their kids. You wish that you would know the exact time to change
the diaper that would lift up their mood.
You might also wish that how to convince them to eat
their veggies without throwing a tantrum. You might also wish that you
could handle their emotions when you tell them that they must stay away from a
friend who is a bad influence. Or, you might wish that you know how to drive
them towards a certain cause and deal with their flustering angered
emotions!
Dealing with Child’s Emotions
Dealing with child ‘s emotions is basically possible through a few stages:
Be aware of the emotional development of the child. You should know that the
child is growing up and make sure that you are well informed on what to expect
regarding the probable behaviour of the child at his respective age. You can
read books or enrol in counselling sessions or attend workshops to get a clear
idea on this. The aspects that will be explained to you are:
- How to acknowledge your child’s feelings.
- The best way to deal with negative emotions of your child.
- The details of all the related info and what you ought to do in a given situation
Remember, the most important fact while dealing with child’s emotions are
calling for an appropriate acknowledgment of those emotions. That is the
beginning part. Given below are the principle factors:
- Recognise and acknowledge the child’s emotion.
- Enhance your intimacy with the child’s emotion
- Give your complete attention as you try to validate the child’s emotion.
- Label the child’s emotion accordingly.
- Draw the necessary limitations with the child’s emotion.
How to Practice the Rules
The next aspect is putting the above
rules into practice. Let us consider this example, where your little one
is throwing tantrum
in a store as you will not buy her the toy of her choice. She yells and starts
throwing things out of your shopping cart. Here is how you can deal with the
emotions of the child:
Recognise Child’s Emotions
First
acknowledge and recognise the emotion of the child. It must be a blend
of annoyance, distress and frustration in her. For the moment put yourself in
her shoes and realise her emotions.
Enhance Your Intimacy with the Emotion
Try to empathise with the
feelings of your little one. Remember, you cannot and must not label any
feeling as bad or unacceptable. So once you empathise, you will be able to
connect at a deeper level with your kid. You will be readily able to tell her
or him that you can understand how upsetting it is when you do not get the
things you want.
Try to Validate the Emotion
Accept before your kid that you realise
and understand that it is upsetting for him and you also understand that he
really wants the toy.
Now Label the Emotion
Say something like; I can see that you are
angry because I cannot get you that toy.
Finally, set limits to the emotion. Be calm as you tell her that I can well
understand that you are angry but I cannot let you throw out the things out of
the cart just like that. If required, you must sit on the floor or the bench
with the kid, as you patiently talk to her.
The objective is to help the child understand that you are there to help her
and listen to her. And also you accept her with her feelings and emotions. This
will help the kid to understand that it is good to let out feelings but there
should be a limit to all.
