Can you use your words to tell me what you’re feeling? Is there anything else you’d like to share? Thank you for trusting me when you are struggling.
These are all great phrases that encourage our kids to share their emotions with us. Sometimes as parents, we feel overwhelmed when our kids are emotional, but these moments provide great opportunities for us to become their emotional compasses and help them learn the value of co-regulation.
When a child’s caregiver is nurturing and provides a safe environment for them to share their feelings, that child learns that it’s OK to feel and express feelings in a healthy way. This process of co-regulation usually lowers the intensity of their feelings allowing their left brain to communicate with their right brain and help them develop wise minds.
Learning to manage our emotions is a lifelong process. It begins with us as parents and then continues as we help kids learn the value of turning to God for a comfort that we experience in the depths of our soul and goes beyond human understanding.
