11/30/2025
1. You are responsible for the emotional temperature in the room, always.
Being a parent is tough, especially when your child is the middle of big feelings. It can be so triggering when our kids are escalated, but our role as parents is to be the calm in our child's storm, not to join the storm. Kids mirror your level of regulation,
2. You can’t expect emotional skills you never taught.
Kids aren’t born knowing how to share, self-regulate, sit still, or talk about feelings. If you want the skill, you have to model it, teach it, and practice it with them.
3. Your child hears how you talk about them - it becomes their inner voice.
The way we speak to kids and speak about them to others becomes a huge part of how they see themselves later. Choose to see your kid's challenging behavior for what it is - communication and speak to and about them in a way that highlights the good in them, not the challenges.
4. Screens aren’t the enemy. Dysregulation is.
The meltdown when you turn off the tablet isn’t about the tablet. It’s about transitions, impulse control, and emotional tolerance. Blaming the device skips the real problem and the real solution.
5. A child’s behaviour is communication, not defiance.
All behavior is a form of communication. When your child acts up, they are trying to ask for something or tell you something through that behavior. Choose to find the most generous interpretation of their behavior and seek to understand the need behind it.