“Validate their emotions” is a phrase that has taken on almost a comedic meaning.
Along with the general misunderstanding that gentle parenting means let-your-kids-run-wild and baby talk your 5 year old,
Validating emotions has also been misunderstood as absurdly pointing out your kid is crying (in a baby voice of course) and then awkwardly standing there staring at one another for a while.
And I’ll admit, I’ve had my fair share of laughs watching the Instagram reels where parents share their frustration about it.
It feels silly to have your toddler stomping around the kitchen and borderline bear growling at you and then saying “aaawww…you must be sooooo angry!”
Well duh.
What gave it away, the stomping or the bear growls? 🤪
But the reason is can feel so absurd is because there’s:
A: confusion about the purpose of validating emotions in children (and it’s not to coddle them).
And B: confusion about how to validate emotions.
So that’s what this week’s Mudroom conversation will be about.
We’ll chat about why we validate our children’s emotions, how this helps their behavior in the long run, and 3 easy steps to validating their emotions in an impactful way.
As always, I want to stress that this is not about letting children get away with everything and do whatever they want.
It’sabout helping them feel secure while they figure out this whole human experience.
Grab the Scripts to Manage the Top 10 Crazy-Making Behaviours: prnt.link/scripts Watch the video recording here: Join the Parenting Posse: prnt.link/group the Mudroom is recorded live every Wednesday at 1:30pm ET/ 12:30pm CT/ 10:30am PT on Facebook: facebook.com/arfamilyservices
