Helping Your Child with Their Feelings

Want a way to help your child do better at school and pretty much all they do? Focusing on feelings can help you get there! All children have feelings, but they don't always know the appropriate way to express them.

Helping them understand and work through their feelings comes with a lot of benefits!.

Understanding Feelings and Emotions in Children

We know what it feels like to be angry, hurt, sad, or happy. But if we don't know the appropriate ways to handle those feelings, they can tend to get the better of us. Take having your feelings hurt, for example. If a child doesn't know appropriate, easy ways to handle that situation, it may come out as anger, making a bigger and more serious issue. It's always helpful for your child to learn to be in tune with their feelings and know what to do with them. Here are some tips for helping your child with their feelings:

• Help them learn to identify what they are feeling. Discuss things like anger, sadness, and jealousy, as well as what they can do to help themselves work through those feelings.
• Consider role playing, reading books on the topic, and having discussions to help them learn appropriate ways to address feelings. When you watch television together, for example, point out and discuss the various feelings that are being shown.
• Help your child learn that feelings are normal and that you can't stop having them, even the negative ones like anger or jealousy. But what matters is what they do with those feelings.
• Make use of parenting tools that can help your child focus more on their feelings, such as a chart of feelings, behavior reflection sheets, emotions journal, or even behavior charts.
• Seize the opportunity to use feelings as a way to teach your child empathy. As they learn what it feels like to have their feelings hurt, for example, they can learn what it must feel like for others as well.
• Be a good role model by sharing your feelings with your child and handling them in appropriate ways.

Your kids will benefit from working through their feelings. It is a skill that can help them at school, home, and throughout life. Just make it a regular part of your home life, and before you know it, you will have a child who is in tune with their feelings and knows how to appropriately manage them!