Quote Originally Posted by Sarah View Post
Respectfull discussion is healthy!.
Could not agree more ... I love me good debate on philosophical practices!

I respect that it is very hard to find that balance between supporting positive social emotional development in children - we want to respect and accept their feelings cause they are entitled to have them and we do not want to teach children to 'bury' those like many of us were taught back in the day with messages like 'boys dont cry be a man' and so forth.

We also want to do that while supporting the development of socially acceptable conflict resolution skills and resilience in children ... that message that oh yes it is ok to cry when hurt / sad come here and let me give you a snuggle verses it is NOT ok to throw a tantrum because you did not get your own way or had to wait a moment for your needs to be met - I know your frustrated but lets use your WORDS to solve that problem - when your body is calm down and ready to TALK I can help you.

I have a two year old who is in that 'crying' over everything stage and whenever he starts I just say "Stop! I can see your getting frustrated - take a big deep breath and try again cause I know you can do it - and crying will not ...." get your shoe on/off, will not get that puzzle piece into the puzzle or whatever is causing the start of the tantrum behaviour ... it is working wonders here and if mom and dad could get on the same page it would work at home too - however they still buy into it at pick up and 'bribe' him to stop and well hey if a tantrum will get you a Timmies donut eventually or a trip to the store for a new dinky car why wouldn't you throw one