Calm down your impulsive kid

All kids are impulsive. They hit, bite, kick and yell without thinking through the consequences. They feel a feeling and act on it. We can blow this off as kids will be kids or send them to the corner until they learn their lesson. Or, we can introduce our kids to the PAUSE.
One of the first steps to making a good decision is to think calmly about our options. Unfortunately, when we are upset, worried, frustrated or angry, our brains are responding emotionally, not rationally. Which means our child will respond emotionally…not rationally. The word PAUSE is a verbal reminder to our kids that they need to calm their body so that they can make a better choice.

TEACHING YOUR CHILD TO PAUSE

- To begin, talk with your kids about their brain using age-appropriate language.
Your brain is awesome! It sends messages to all of your body parts and tells them what to do. It helps you jump, run and also your brain helps you do math, spelling, and reading. It also helps you make decisions.   Unfortunately your brain does not think clearly when you are mad, upset or super-duper excited.

- Next, introduce the concept of a pause. If you don’t like the word PAUSE, pick something else…even something silly like  RAISINS.
You know how to pause your video games and the DVD player, but did you know that you can also pause your body? Yep. Let’s play a game.   You do a silly dance until I yell PAUSE, then you freeze.

- Tie the brain information and the pause together.
Remember when I said that sometimes our brains can’t think very clearly? Did you know that you can help your brain think clearly? Yep, you can! By doing a PAUSE! When we pause, we’re going to take a big deep breath. This is going to give our brains some good clean air to think better. Can you do a big deep breath? Good! We might need to take more deep breaths if we’re not feeling calm yet.

- Let’s think of a time when it might be hard to make a good choice. Maybe when someone takes your toy without asking, when you’re confused about your homework assignment or when mom says it’s time to come inside for dinner. Can you think of some? When those things happen you might be feeling sad, angry, frustrated or worried.  

- Practice the pause.
Oh No! That means our brain is not thinking clearly! We can’t make a good choice when we’re so upset. So sometimes we hit, kick, rip up our homework or yell. How can we make a better decision? What can we do?? PAUSE! Let’s take a deep breath. Do we need another one? OK, deep breath. Good!

#kids #jugnukids #kidsparenting