As a mom, there were some challenging parenting moments, when I am with a grumpy child and wondered what should I do? We are not doing what we are here to do. This child is clearly not listening. My two children have completely different personality and they also tend to be crumply at different times. It is human nature that we all have different emotions at different times. But as a single mom, I had to learn to manage those situation.
Step 1: Is your child hungry or tired? Sometimes I forget that we have been doing too much that day or even the day before. And the child just needs to be home and rest. Even extroverts need quiet time or nap time on a busy day!
Step 2: Leave them alone and don’t feed off the negative emotions. We all have bad days, when things don’t work out the way we intended and it is ok. Tell them about their emotions and tell them you love them. Stay calm and know that they will get over the meltdown.
Step 3: When they are calm, talk to them about what happened and tell them what they or you can do differently to manage the situations next time.
Not only kids will have periods of grumpiness, I sometimes need a timeout too. When I notice that I am not being a patient mom, I would tell my kids that I am not in a good mood and goto my room. This models the way how I manage my emotions and they learn from it! They know that we all have different kinds of emotions throughout the day and it is ok to go through it.
Be happy,
Shih-Ying