photo by photospin
In the last year I’ve really made an effort to take a deep breath before dealing with an undesirable situation with my kids - be it talking back, not listening, refusing a request or battling nap time. I admit, I have yelled in the past. I even spanked. But then the kids starting yelling back. And I’ve not spanked them in I don’t know how long.
Twice in the last week my now 6-year-old son has pushed me when he’s angry. Last night, after 9 p.m. I told him it was time for bed. He wanted to play with a new toy - one he’d been playing with for 45 minutes. I gave him plenty of warning, including a bath. But he didn’t like what I said and slugged me in the chest. It didn’t hurt. But I reacted: taking his toy and saying “Nope, we don’t hit mommy. Now it’s time for bed.”
Did I mention the other reaction he’s had? Running away. He ran downstairs crying to dad, who sat him down for a mostly calm conversation about not hitting. In the end, he apologized, got jammies on and went to bed. And he did not get his toy back.
But I have to think there’s a better way! My husband mentioned Tai Chi. I thought yoga. Anything to just burnout the initial response he has. I asked his teacher this morning about it and she said he doesn’t react that way at camp. But maybe it’s an age thing also. I’m considering a parenting class next week at a local hospital. My husband said “sure” so maybe we’ll get some other ideas.
Kids,especially young children have a difficult time expressing their emotions outwardly, or they cant comprehend them yet to have a mature conversation about them. A good way to involve a kid in an anger management therapy session is by playing anger management games for therapy. kids have fun but at the same time can be taught valuable reasoning skills.