Dealing With Tantrums And Other Public Parenting Embarrassments—With Dignity
So, where were you when your child had their first tantrum?
I remember three “firsts”: on the bus, in the open market, and at home.
Each one of them varied slightly from the others, but they all had something in common: the “oh no, everyone is looking” factor.
Then, one day, I was on an intercity bus with a 9 months old baby who preferred to scream over falling asleep. After quite a few minutes of extremely loud fussing, the woman I shared the space with turned to me and said in an almost admiring manner: “I see that you’re already experienced, you’re not getting stressed over this”.
Indeed, at that point I had 4 other children at home, and I had no longer dreaded public tantrums and fits.
On the contrary: they serve as tests to the extent which I’m focused on my obligation toward my children and on my parenting values, rather than on other people’s agendas whose faces I won’t even remember.
More profoundly, I’ve learned that a tantrum is one of the best training situations you can ask for hearing your parenting intuition loud and clear!
This isn’t anything mystical or spiritual; I’m going to share with you exactly what I do on this episode, so that you can also experience better parenting AND personal growth in one shot.
In addition—I invite you to read an important article that I wrote about the UpsideDown Parenting approach to tantrums, which is now available on the Resources section.
In this article, we move from the public sphere into the home, where there’s more time & space to give your child the kind of attention that is beneficial when she’s totally lost it.
Blessings for a meaningful week with your family,
P.S. Nu, did you check out our new feature on UpsideDown Parenting? It’s called The Parenting Studio, and it’s where I’m currently working step by step on my nightly bedtime challenge with my kids. Check it out, it’s truly where parenting is informed by personal transformation tools, and where parenting challenge accelerate your faithfulness to your core values. (This week’s entry: Will my neighbors be happy with the parenting challenge I chose to tackle?)