Dear Mama, What to Try When You Feel Like Melting Down

Sometimes, it’s the children who have meltdowns. Sometimes, it’s the parent.

And on some days, everyone’s taking their turn and joining the chorus that feeds a bad cycle that turns in to a bad morning that we allow to turn into a bad day.

Derailing a Bad Day

One one particular morning, I recognized the cycle and decided to try and starve it. My own calm hadn’t starved it. My own frustrations had fed it. This cycle had become the new normal, and we needed to make it un-normal.

We needed a replacement behavior.

On this day, I laughed along with it. It worked, and it was such a relief:

Searching for Silly ~ Derailing a Tantrum Before Getting Thrown off the Track {incourage.me}

 

How to Search (and Find) the Silly in Everyday Stressful Situations with Young Children

1. Make a funny face.
2. Hyperventilate loudly.
3. Leave the room and come back in with a clown nose. Or a funny hat. Or your shirt on backwards.
4. Put on some dancin’ music. And then start dancin’
5. Hand them a piece of chocolate. (This isn’t a bribe); it’s redirection. Be sure NOT to say, “I’ll give you chocolate if you stop screaming!”
6. Throw down a tantrum yourself.

 

(psst: It won’t always work.) But sometimes it will.