As a mother of four children, I have had my share of dealing with meltdowns at various ages.
In this blog, I share several of my strategies that clearly DID NOT work and what motivated me to seek skills and understanding that would assist me in being more compassionate and effective in dealing with undesirable behaviour.
Even though I use the example of homework as a possible trigger for a meltdown in this blog, I offer perspectives and strategies that are helpful no matter the age of your child or what the triggering event might be.
Ready to deal with temper tantrums and meltdowns more effectively?
One of the things we do every year at the school where I teach is host "Character Education Assemblies." One of the character traits we need to teach students about Honesty. I have noticed how easy it is for adults to tell kids to be honest and always answer truthfully yet how difficult this can be at times for us as adults to do in our day to day lives.
"Do you want to go out with me? Is it ok if I borrow your car? Do you think this looks good? Do you like what I did? Is that ok with you? Are you ok to watch my kids? I need to borrow some money, is that ok? How are you feeling?"
Read my blog to find out what may be blocking you from being fully honest with others...
Recently, while my teenage daughter and I were at her high school, we overheard a mom yelling into her cell phone about assignments not handed in.
When our children are not doing what we want, it can feel so painful. As a mom, I have done my share of yelling at my kids in an attempt to get them to do what I think is best.
Is yelling at our teens really that effective? Maybe in the short term, it creates some desired changes but over the long term, it can leave our teens more frustrated, more destructive and damage our relationships with them.
What can we do instead?