Major meltdowns, crying, screaming, kicking. Sound familiar?

It’s normal, up until five years old to have temper tantrums. Regardless of the child’s age, it’s important to give them support and empathy.

How can such a small person have such big emotions?

They do, they feel things bigger than we do. An adult thinks more rationally, children think more emotionally. Life is new to them. Experiences happen and they don’t know how to react in a helpful way, so they act out.

The good news is you can teach them.

What do your children do to calm down? To relax? What makes them happy?

If all of these questions are followed by electronics, you have a problem. Electronics are just part of our lives, but they shouldn’t be used all the time.

Build relaxation and down time into the routine. Make a list with your child of what would help them. Buy some fun things to add to a relaxation box. Make a playlist of relaxing music. Get some books from the library on feelings. Work on it together. Build a calm down spot.

Practice when they are calm. Trying new strategies in the moment is not the time to teach them. When big emotions come up they can start using the tools they practiced while they were calm.

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