Play is a fantastic & highly effective way of responding to your child in challenging moments. But there are times when it isn’t enough. When your child is clearly upset or being aggressive, you need to do something else.
What your child needs in those moments is to offload their upset feelings with you nearby. But their response is to often shout at you to “go away”.
Which can then become confusing (and a bit irritating!) as you would like to respect their wishes, but can also see that they’re upset and want to help.
So what can you do in those moments? How can you best help your child?
Join me in this episode’s interview with my good friend Nicky McGrath who has a 5 year old daughter and has been following Aware Parenting & Parenting by Connection since Katie was a baby.
Hear how we both respond to our own children in those challenging moments.
Key points to remember:
- Your child needs help not punishment when they are behaving at their worst
- It can look like your child wants to hurt you, but they really don’t.
- It’s completely understandable that your child’s difficult behaviour & feelings can bring up your own feelings of anger, irritation and overwhelm
- Try to resource yourself so you’re in a better position to be able to listen to your child’s upset & angry feelings
- “Sometimes you need to crawl through barbed wire to reach your angry child” Patty Wipfler, founder of Hand in Hand Parenting
- As much as you can, stay with your child when they are feeling & behaving at their worst.
Nicky McGrath & I
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