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A book recommendation about feelings |
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Anonymous Author (November 2006) |
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Do book recommendations belong somewhere other than advice? I'm still trying to find my way around Minti.
Here's the book. It's called Between Parent and Child by Dr. Haim Ginott. I haven't actually finished it, but have already had some amazing insights about what to do with
my girls and their emotions.
- Kids need a lot of help in understanding their emotions. (This is the part I knew, what I didn't know was how to go about it.) He explains that one of the best things you can do for your kids when they're feeling strong emotions is to first name what you see without making judgments. For example, when little David is scowling and stomping around the house: "I see an angry boy. I see a very angry boy." This helps the child to understand what they're feeling and lets them know that those feelings are OK.
- It also gives them an opportunity to better understand what's going on inside them. Not only do kids want you to know what they're feeling, they want and need to know themselves. I don't have to search very far back in my memory (like probably earlier today) to know that being able to articulate which emotions you're feeling can be really hard. Helping our kids understand their emotions by giving them language to articulate it is not only helpful in the moment but will help them be emotionally healthy throughout their life.
- When kids are acting out, rather than immediately disciplining the behavior, it helps to name the emotions behind the actions. This goes a long way in helping them to calm down, at which point the behavior is much more effectively dealt with.
- Praising and encouraging kids' positive actions is helpful, making value judgments about them as people is not. Telling them they have done well at a specific task helps them feel more confident about their abilities (you did such a great job cleaning that up), but tying their actions to who they are as people (you are a good girl) can create a lot of pressure. They begin to feel there is an image of themselves they must live up to, and can feel afraid of not being able to pull it off.
- One of the best points Ginott made is that we should not stifle our own angry feelings and hide them from our kids. While it can be very harmful to take our anger out on our kids, expressing our anger and frustration to them and in their presence helps them see that anger is normal and to understand appropriate ways of dealing with it. He points out that they know when we're angry anyway and acknowledging it helps them feel they can trust us. Statements like "I feel angry. I feel frustrated. When I see this happening, I feel mad." These statements do not attack your kids, but they do express what is true about yourself.
I'll share more when I read more. This has already been so helpful for us in dealing with our girls' outbursts and tantrums. (And someone please let me know if I should be talking about books in some other forum.)