Teaching Your Child to Manage Their Emotions

Emotions are innate. There is no denying that. Everyone is born with them and everyone has them. But as you grow, it’s important to know how to handle emotions in different situations. This is something that has to be taught and falls on the shoulders of parents. The only way for a child to clearly understand is through experiences they have so they are able to work on them as they grow. Here are some ways to teach your child how to manage their emotions.

As humans, we have something called primary and secondary emotions. A primary emotion would be fear and the secondary emotion that resonates from fear would be anxiety. Through childhood, secondary emotions come into play more. Your child will be stuck between understanding which emotions are appropriate in different situations as well as being able to actually identify the emotion they're truly feeling. As a parent, the best thing to do is sit your child down when these emotions seem to overtake them and teach them what to do. Help them identify the emotion by asking them to explain what happened and what they’re feeling. If your child says they’re angry because a toy was snatched from them, you can follow with an open question like “what was the real reason that you think they may have snatched?”. This will have your child being able to identify the emotion and connect the situation to factors that may have played into the other child snatching such as your child not sharing. Immediately this creates a coping mechanism as your child is less likely to be volatile and act within the moment.

Looking closer to home, try and start the change with you. Model the behaviour yourself. Your child watches everything you do from verbal to physical reactions in different situations. If a child is exposed to many negative emotions, it can make them struggle in the future. Similarly taught in this independent school in Surrey try and keep a balance of emotions exposed and attempt to stay more positive for better long-term effects. Create a safe space for your child to expose their emotions and help them figure out ways that they can manage them for the future. You’ve got this mama’s and papas!