This study sheds new light on how babies process and internalize the emotional responses of adults. Parents love to say that kids are resilient, and to some degree they can be, but that doesn’t mean that they let emotional outbursts roll off their backs. In fact, what looks like resilience or a child functioning as “the easy one” might very well be a child engaging in self-protective measures.
So, what can you do to help keep your angry emotions in check? Start here:
1. Uncover your anger triggers. I spend a lot of time helping young children work through their feelings of anger, but sometimes the most difficult part of my job is helping their parents understand their own anger cues and triggers. Parenting is hard work and it’s natural to run thin on patience at times, but projecting anger onto small children only increases the stress level in the home. Children will internalize that anger and either imitate it or become withdrawn and anxious. I suggest keeping your own anger log. When you feel yourself losing patience and ready to yell, jot down what’s happening and how you’re feeling on an anger scale of 1 to 10 (10 being ready to explode). This is how to identify your triggers. Once you figure out your anger patterns, you can take steps to work through your emotions without yelling.
2. Get outside. Parents have a tendency to want to deal with frustrating situations right this very minute, as if letting things go for a moment is a bad thing. I find that, more often than not, our first reactions are not necessarily our best reactions. Getting outside for a few minutes can help calm everyone down and provide the space parents need to think something through. Take a quick walk with the kids, do some jumping jacks in the backyard, or go hunting for leaves and pebbles. Taking space from the anger-inducing event gives you time to process your emotions and come up with a plan to address the issue with your child in a calm way.
3. Learn to relax. Parenting can feel like a non-stop roller coaster at times, but we need to learn to exit the roller coaster and carve out time to practice relaxation techniques. I teach kids to use deep breathing to keep their anxiety and anger from bubbling over, and parents can benefit from this as well. I suggest visualizing a calming scene when practicing deep breathing. Breathe in for a count of four, hold for four, and release for a count of four. If doing this independently is difficult, download a mindfulness app to your phone to help you focus on your breathing. And if that doesn’t work, I highly recommend doing yoga as often as possible. Just this morning my husband said, “You’re really not concerned about this at all?” as our daughter stood spinning for what felt like five minutes with a play tent over her head. “I’ve done yoga for the past seven days,” I told him. “I don’t have a ton of concerns right now.” Maybe “Yoga Moms” should be the new trend in parenting.
More on Baby’s Health:
- How to Reduce Your Baby’s Risk of SIDS, According to a Pediatrician & Mom
- What Are the Symptoms of Cradle Cap & How Is it Treated?
- Most Common Questions About Newborns, Answered
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