Owning This Emotional Ride

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“Diaper backward spells repaid.” – Marshall McLuhan

I read Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina when I was pregnant with Miss O. It had these great categories for nature versus nurture (which the author re-branded as seed and soil) and what we can do as parents and caregivers to influence and understand both.

It said that as our little ones’ brains developed, it was helpful to help them identify the emotions that they were feeling. And it advised that to do that, we need to own our own emotions.

I remember laughing and thinking there was no way I was doing that. I was going to be the one parent that could help their child be emotionally mature without doing it myself. Ha, ha, ha!

So, add one more thing to the list of things I thought I’d never do that parenting has taught me how to do. Identifying some of my negative emotions is the topic of my Wise & Shine post today: Emotional Literacy

16 thoughts on “Owning This Emotional Ride”

  2. Kids are incredibly good at seeing when they are requested to behave in more mature ways than the adults around them. If the adults are feeling strong emotions and aren’t able to process them in healthy ways, why would we expect a youngster to do better than us? They see right through the hypocrisy of it all!

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  5. I learned a new term: foreboding joy. It and the definition captures so much of what I feel and why I feel apprehensive or guilty about allowing myself to feel truly joyful especially when it comes to someone else. That explains so much!

    And books indeed are a great window to explaining emotions, especially the negative ones. We just read a kids book called Listen To My Body. Great book about mindfulness and emotions and how they manifest in sensations in your body.

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    1. I thought the same thing about foreboding joy!!

      I’m ordering Listen to My Body right now – we have been having big emotions in the last couple of weeks and it sounds just like what we need. Thank you, Ab!

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