5 parenting tricks that also help adults deal with their feelings

Raising children requires a lot of learning by doing how to deal with frequent tantrums and emotional breakdowns, so that we realize with time that we need these strategies as much as the children need them. Adults are often too preoccupied with the demands of daily life to realize they are experiencing emotional difficulties, said Dr. Jessie Gould, a wellness officer at the University of Tennessee and an associate professor of psychiatry at the university's Health Sciences Center in Memphis. “We focus so much on getting the task done, not the person doing it,” she said.

She explained that parents teach their children that their feelings are legitimate and treat them with compassion, adding: “But we do not treat ourselves the same way.” Therefore, it is important to start using these parenting tricks to help ourselves as well, and you do not have to be a parent to benefit from them.

Time-out Time-out is often used as a form of punishment, but it can also be a gift we give ourselves. When we feel exhausted, often because children demand more from their parents than they can give at that moment, sometimes the only way to avoid demanding everyone's silence for a while by screaming is to withdraw into the room.

Gold explained that this is called a “proactive time out,” because staying away from the source of intense stress or emotion gives you a chance to calm down before you say something you might regret. When you can't physically distance yourself, say, "I need a minute," to give yourself time to calm down.

An educational brochure for kindergarten children, to help them deal with their overreactions, teaches this trick. Young children tend to treat simple situations, such as a milk spill, as if it were an extreme emergency.

We parents do not realize it until later that we are doing the same thing. We may not scream, cry, or throw ourselves on the ground, but we are experiencing internal panic.

We tend to exaggerate trivial matters, turn small problems into major crises, and strive for perfection at the expense of being satisfied with what is good. We may remain preoccupied with simple mistakes, which we revisit over and over again and blame ourselves for, or we waste time and energy that is disproportionate to the importance of a simple decision that does not have major consequences.

Therefore, it is important to benefit from the wisdom of kindergarten teachers, and ask ourselves: Is the problem big or small? If it is small, we deal with it quickly, or decide not to do anything about it.

In both cases, we stop allowing it to occupy so much space in our thoughts, we move past it and move forward. Three deep breaths It is a simple method, but very useful.

Slow, deep breathing helps relieve stress in several ways, including: Whenever one of our children gets emotional, we usually ask him to take three deep breaths and count to five. Or are you about to throw a tantrum because I turned off the TV?

Or are you feeling nervous as you enter a new classroom? We acknowledge our understanding, and ask to take three deep breaths.

Then we slowly inhale through the nose and exhale through our mouth to show him what we want him to do. Just Eat Something There's a reason why parents take snacks with them when they go out with their young children. They know that the combination of hunger and irritability gives a child a guaranteed recipe for chaos.

However, we may spend hours during a busy day sipping a cup of coffee, and then ask ourselves why we feel distracted, exhausted, and irritable. Maybe it's burnout, migraines, male-dominated patriarchy, or maybe simply dehydration.

“Our physical health is closely linked to our mental health,” Gold said, adding that not eating, drinking water, or getting enough sleep makes us more irritable and irritable, and may cause us to cry unexpectedly, just as it happens with children. It's amazing what a glass of water and a handful of pistachios can do.

I wish every one of us had a mother with a bag full of snacks to help get through the day!