When your child is having big feelings, it can be so hard to stay calm to help them through.
This blog post provides tips on how to remain calm when your child is having a tantrum.
The first thing you need to be able to do is to PAUSE. It’s kind of like the parenting superpower. If you can switch up your immediate response from ‘reacting’ to ‘pausing’ this gives you the chance to choose how you will respond – rather than letting your ‘fight’ response come out in the form of yelling or screaming.
Once you have paused, you have a few options to further help your body relax before you respond to your child.
Some of my favourites are:
🧡 Count to 5 as you breath in and out.
🧡 Do a quick body scan from head to toe, relaxing any body parts you notice are tense.🧡 Repeat to yourself, 'this isn't an emergency.'
Finally, when you are ready to respond to your child, remember that they are not having a tantrum to annoy you - they are trying to get their needs met and don't know any other way.
Once you have taken your pause, and relaxed your body, you are more able to be a safe space for your child to express their feelings. Your child having a tantrum is not a sign of being a 'bad parent' - it is simply the sign of a child expressing themselves, and it's perfectly normal.
Likewise, if you are unable to pause and relax your body and so yell at your child, remember to apologise afterwards. Connect with your child and let them know you still love them. You could even talk about how hard it is to stay calm when things are tough.
Mindfulness can sure help you PAUSE before reacting to a stressful situation, if you would like to know more, book in a free 30 minute chat with me and I can take you through what I have done to make mindfulness an easy part of my day.
About me
Hi, I'm Nina, mum to three loud little boys. I'm also a certified Mindful Parenting Coach and Head and Heart Mindfulness Instructor.
I can totally appreciate how tough parenting is - two years ago, I was a struggling mama who was feeling run down, exhausted and fed up with this 'mum life'.
I began my mindfulness journey when my youngest was born, almost 3 years ago. I went from being stressed out, overwhelmed and quick to anger, to being cool, calm and connected to my kids.
I love being able to share mindfulness with my boys, teaching them the skills to be able to regulate their emotions (like I have done) has to be one of the most satisfying lessons to pass on to them.
I personally read all my emails (I don’t get someone else to read them for me) so I'd love to hear from you if this blog resonated with you? Are you excited to try adding some mindfulness into your day?
Shoot me an email at Nina@mindfulparentinglifestyle.com.au and let me know how you're going.
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