We all have them, those days when things are going well, you’re having a nice day with the kids and things feel easy…But then a switch gets flipped and everything goes to crap. In this episode, you’ll learn my process for resetting crappy moments so you can get back to feeling calm and connected (and maybe even have a little fun!).
I know firsthand the challenges that come with managing unexpected meltdowns and dysregulated behaviors. Maybe your kid has a tantrum and you have no idea why or you hit your threshold before you even realize you’re starting to feel overwhelmed. Bonus points if you’re at the grocery store, out to eat or visiting someone else’s home.
This scenario of things escalating quickly is so common. I see it sometimes at restaurants. A family comes in and orders food. The kids are doing fine. They’re occupied while they wait for the food to come and eat it really fast because they’re hungry. Then, they start to act out.
Mom’s thinking, “All I wanted to do was sit here and enjoy myself. Now my kids are super wild, and I don't know what to do. Do we leave? Do we not leave?” She’s about to lose it (and maybe she does).
The problem here is that the kids now have full bellies. They have energy to burn and don’t know what to do while they sit and wait for everyone else to finish eating. And when mom runs out of patience and becomes harsh or starts to make threats, the situation escalates.
In these moments, your child's amygdala, the part of their brain that activates the stress response, is sounding an alarm. At the restaurant, it might be triggered by boredom or restlessness. This discomfort causes your child to become dysregulated, so they come up with strategies to communicate or cope with that uncomfortable feeling (like getting noisy or wild with their body).
They’re feeling a certain way and showing it with their body. But we tend to bypass the emotion and jump straight to “fixing” the behavior.
When your child is dysregulated and acting out, your brain is going to tell you to start threatening and punishing. To discipline the behavior and get them back in line. It sees their behavior as a threat. But this is not the time for consequences. It will only escalate the situation even more.
The first step is to simply recognize that these moments happened. At first, you might only realize it after the fact, but with practice you’ll learn to see it while it’s happening.
When you feel like things are going off the rails and your kids are escalating and things are just really hard and feel awful, I want you to take a pause break with everyone.
When you notice that your child is having feelings about something, take a moment to address it. This might mean pausing a conversation or activity. In the restaurant scenario, you could take the child aside or go sit next to them and calmly say, “We need to talk here for a second.”
Taking this pause to calm yourself and your child comes from a leadership energy of believing that you are actually in control here. You know what to do. You know how to reset.
Rather than making commands or threats, turn to your child and connect with them. Either in your own mind or with your kid, narrate what is happening and name the emotion that might be causing it. Then ask them what they’re going to do next. Empower them to make a decision about the next steps.
Set some limits, and if they can’t hold them, you’ll have to pivot. If that pivot costs you anything (time, money, energy, etc.), it has an impact that you’ll pass back onto your kid later (aka a consequence).
We don’t let our kids get away with bad behavior. Your child’s feelings are valid, their behavior makes sense, and they're still responsible for the impact of their behavior.
I want your kid’s nervous system (and yours) to calm down before you deliver the consequence. This is what I call delaying a consequence.
When you take a beat to regroup, pause, connect and limit set, you are actually teaching your children how to pause and reset themselves. The long-term goal is that our kids will be able to notice when they’re getting dysregulated, they’ll have words for what they’re feeling and they will have healthy ways to cope with those feelings. It’s a life skill that will benefit them forever.
The process is always the same. You and your kids can learn and practice it right alongside each other. Head to my website to learn more about upcoming programs and how you can get the tools and support you need.
As you move through this week and challenging moments come up, ask yourself, “Can I choose my peace in this moment? Can I choose my kid’s emotional well-being in this moment?”
You’ve got this, Mama! Take a pause, give yourself a chance to reset and start again.
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✨A script to say to your kids when you yell. (So they don't follow you around!)
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Welcome back to become a calm mama, and
Speaker:happy new year. I think this is the 2nd episode of
Speaker:this new 2024 year. So I hope it's off to a
Speaker:good start. I always know it Feels good when the kids get back to
Speaker:school and you get back to your routines and your rhythms.
Speaker:And I just wanna Mind you that that 1st week back is a
Speaker:transition week. Your kids are still recovering from, like, sleep
Speaker:deprivation. They maybe have, You know, had a
Speaker:lot of, like, boredom, so they've been dysregulated
Speaker:over the past week or you've had a lot going on. They might
Speaker:be really overtired. They might not have eaten well. There's a lot of
Speaker:colds going on, so your kids might show back up at school and get sick,
Speaker:and then you've gotta have them home again. So I just wanna remind you that
Speaker:you are in a transition as you head back into
Speaker:getting back into your rhythm. So give yourself patience. Give yourself
Speaker:A lot of grace as you, transition back.
Speaker:So this episode today is It's
Speaker:called resetting crappy moments. And
Speaker:I really wanted to talk about this because
Speaker:I think this happens to a lot of us as moms
Speaker:is that we're sort of doing a pretty good job
Speaker:staying calm, And everybody is, you know, sort
Speaker:of half listening. You know, they're complying, and things are a little
Speaker:bit easy. And you're, you know, you're just, like, in your mom mode, and things
Speaker:are going well. And then somehow, there's,
Speaker:like, a flip a switch gets flipped, or
Speaker:I've been thinking about it like you trip over your own nervous
Speaker:system or your kids, for whatever reason, get super
Speaker:chaotic or dysregulated all of a sudden, And you're in,
Speaker:you know, sort of what was going well all of a sudden
Speaker:goes to crap. And that
Speaker:ends up looking like, you know, your kid has a
Speaker:major meltdown for no reason, and you can't figure out what the heck is going
Speaker:on, or they just not aren't listening to you,
Speaker:or you have, for whatever reason, hit your threshold, you
Speaker:didn't realize that you were starting to get overwhelmed and that your
Speaker:window of stress tolerance was, like, at capacity and
Speaker:you were about to blow your top, and you just lose it. Right?
Speaker:So when do we see this happen? I see it sometimes
Speaker:at restaurants. So your kids are doing fine.
Speaker:They get in the restaurant. They're ordering their Food, and you're
Speaker:waiting for the food to come. You're sort of they're occupied
Speaker:while they're waiting. They're hungry. And then they get the food. They eat it,
Speaker:and they eat it really fast, and then they start to act out.
Speaker:And your brain is like, all I wanted to do was sit here and enjoy
Speaker:myself. And now my kids are super wild, and I don't know what to do.
Speaker:And I do we leave? Do we not leave? Or you're at the grocery
Speaker:store, And they're putting stuff in the cart or they're crying or they're asking
Speaker:for things over and over again. And you're, you know, you're managing it
Speaker:well, And then all of a sudden, you're you're not.
Speaker:Like, they're running away from you, and you're just it feels out of control and
Speaker:out of bounds. And, Other times,
Speaker:like, not to be be labor the experiences,
Speaker:but, you know, you're at a fun outing. I remember one of my clients was
Speaker:At this really cool place, and they had to wait in line for a
Speaker:long time. And the kids got bored, and they got upset, and they
Speaker:got annoying, and they weren't listening, and they were Fighting with each other and that
Speaker:it's like, you know you're about to do something fun or you you
Speaker:know, maybe a grocery store is not fun, but, like, it's temporary.
Speaker:And you're able, because you are an adult, to, like, calm yourself and move
Speaker:through it and, you know, occupy yourself, but your kids can't.
Speaker:Right? At the restaurant. They don't know what to do when their
Speaker:belly's full and their body has all the,
Speaker:you know, Calorie's ready to, you know, move, and
Speaker:we want them to sit still. Or they're at the grocery store, and they have
Speaker:to pay attention and stay close to you. And, You know, they're bored
Speaker:and they're dysregulated, or they're waiting in line, or a
Speaker:family event. Maybe there's not, you know, or a birthday
Speaker:party or something, and they get overstimulated. You know? At pickup,
Speaker:we see this. Like, when your kids come out and you're talking to the moms
Speaker:and your kid is like, Mama. Mama. Mama. Mama. Mama. Right?
Speaker:You know? And they're grabbing at you, and you're like, stop interrupting. That's enough. Don't
Speaker:be disrespectful. Right? So
Speaker:we have these moments with our kids that are
Speaker:just kinda crappy. And
Speaker:Sometimes, like, you can leave. Right? You can be
Speaker:like, okay. This isn't working. We're leaving the restaurant. We're leaving the grocery store.
Speaker:We're, You know, not gonna stay at this place or, you know,
Speaker:I you know, you can stop and you can leave, but then sometimes you can't.
Speaker:So I wanted to help you today understand
Speaker:how to, like, reset One of those
Speaker:crappy moments. So the example
Speaker:or the story that I shared this week in with my
Speaker:email list is imagining that you're at the grocery store
Speaker:and, you know, the kids are young, like, 57, 79. It doesn't really
Speaker:matter. 5 5 and 3 or whatever.
Speaker:And you say because your plan it's not like a bribe. It's not
Speaker:a a reward. Your plan is after the grocery store,
Speaker:They're gonna you're gonna, like, make some popcorn and watch a movie show
Speaker:movie or whatever, or you're gonna watch TV.
Speaker:And so you have this idea in your head, like, how your afternoon is gonna
Speaker:go. And so you say to the kids, hey. As long as there's no
Speaker:problems in the grocery store, I'm happy to, like, make
Speaker:some popcorn, and we can all cozy up on the couch and we can watch
Speaker:a show. And this is your plan, and you communicate your limit to
Speaker:them. And it's That's classic com mama
Speaker:limit setting. So I'm happy to make
Speaker:popcorn and let you watch a show this
Speaker:afternoon as long as there are no problems at the store.
Speaker:And the idea with that kind of limit is that you are
Speaker:really helping your kids understand that their
Speaker:behavior has an impact and that they
Speaker:can manage their Big feelings
Speaker:and their energy while they're at the store,
Speaker:and you can kind of, you know, Remind them while you're there,
Speaker:like, uh-oh. Remember, I I'm looking for no problems here.
Speaker:Come sip and then give them directions. Come stand by the cart. I want your
Speaker:hand to be on the cart here, or give them a little task. Give them
Speaker:a job. Listen. Can you look through all of the yogurts, and can you pick
Speaker:the one that has the orange or you can pick the one that says mango
Speaker:or whatever. You know? You give you involve them. You engage them. You
Speaker:make the task, The the grocery store, the shopping
Speaker:part of your your day with them. So you're like super good
Speaker:calm mama. Okay? Imagine It all works out. Your kids are
Speaker:fine. You're really engaged. You're con you're calm. You're connected. All
Speaker:good. You get home. Everything's great. You're gonna bring in the
Speaker:groceries. You're You're gonna put on the show. You're gonna make the popcorn, and then
Speaker:you're gonna put the groceries away. You're gonna have 30 minutes to, like, you
Speaker:know, prep dinner. All yay.
Speaker:But what happens is you get home, and your neighbor
Speaker:sees you, and she decides to come over and talk to you.
Speaker:So you're in the driveway, And, you know, the neighbors
Speaker:sort of unaware that your kids are waiting for you inside to do
Speaker:something or they're standing right next to you.
Speaker:And one of your kids starts to complain.
Speaker:Mom. Mom. You said you were gonna turn on the show.
Speaker:What's going on? You know, they're being, like Like, literally rude, but
Speaker:they don't know that that's not acceptable behavior because they're
Speaker:young. The feelings of of worry
Speaker:that you're not gonna get it done, the impatience, that inability to
Speaker:delay their own gratification, that's part of their
Speaker:Biology. They're young. Their brain is immature. They don't have the
Speaker:tools yet to self regulate, to cope, to communicate with
Speaker:themselves. She's talking. This is temporary. It's not a
Speaker:problem. She's I can trust her. She's gonna get the show going.
Speaker:I can wait. Right? All that internal self talk
Speaker:doesn't exist for your kids when they're little. They need you
Speaker:to self To regulate them, to coregulate with them, to
Speaker:soothe them, to help them in that moment.
Speaker:And I think of that, As, like,
Speaker:you know, connection really is like
Speaker:pausing and turning to your child while they're interrupting.
Speaker:And what we most of the time do is we say, that's rude. Don't be
Speaker:disrespectful. You should not talk like that to me. Right? Because we
Speaker:feel a little bit embarrassed that the neighbors seeing our kid act this way. We
Speaker:also just feel that they're being disrespectful. And in that moment,
Speaker:instead of Giving them the
Speaker:internal talk that they need to calm and soothe
Speaker:themselves instead of modeling self regulation
Speaker:and doing the process of of coaching them through that
Speaker:moment, you're trying to teach them a lesson or
Speaker:discipline them or threaten them. Now the
Speaker:bummer is that in that crap in that moment when you
Speaker:are, Go you know? Like, that's enough. Don't talk like that.
Speaker:Don't interrupt. Don't be rude. You know? You give them that dirty look, that stare
Speaker:face. I I know because I I know I've done this before too.
Speaker:Your child in that moment, some of
Speaker:your kids might just, like, you know,
Speaker:Fine. Okay. You know, go inside. But a lot of the ones that you know,
Speaker:people who work with me, their kids have a lot of trouble self regulating. They're
Speaker:just immature or well, The all kids are immature, but some
Speaker:kids have more trouble than others. And so if you have a kid that just
Speaker:goes out of bounds really easily or you go out of bounds really easily, you
Speaker:know? That's why you listen to this podcast. That's why you wanna help. So
Speaker:if you go into your child's
Speaker:moment there and you become harsh
Speaker:or threaten, you're
Speaker:going to almost create a crappy moment.
Speaker:You're escalating that moment.
Speaker:Your child's Amygdala, the part of
Speaker:their brain that activates the stress response,
Speaker:is sounding an alarm When they're at
Speaker:the restaurant, it's not necessarily fear. It's
Speaker:boredom, so they dysregulate. When they're at the grocery
Speaker:store, They're, you know, they're restless. When they're in a
Speaker:waiting in line, when the plans change, you
Speaker:know, whatever kind of situation comes up, I
Speaker:really wanna help you see that your child in that moment,
Speaker:their behavior is a strategy that they are using to
Speaker:communicate Their feelings or communicate
Speaker:their discomfort or a strategy to cope
Speaker:With that discomfort, right, they're using they're hitting, they're kicking, they're
Speaker:grabbing at you, they're pulling, they're whining, they're using these
Speaker:behaviors as a tool to regulate themselves, to calm
Speaker:themselves. We always use our body to calm
Speaker:ourselves. So your children are gonna do that too.
Speaker:We use relationship to calm ourselves, so they're looking to you to calm
Speaker:them. They're coming to you. Are they coming to you graciously?
Speaker:No. You would really love for your kid to be like, mom, I'm
Speaker:feeling quite overwhelmed and Stressed. I feel disappointed because
Speaker:I anticipated that we were gonna walk in from the grocery store, and the
Speaker:television was gonna turn on immediately. And now there's a pause and a delay,
Speaker:and I'm very disappointed. And I would like your help to calm
Speaker:myself. Like, no. That's Not what they're
Speaker:gonna do, but they are that is exactly what they are doing
Speaker:in that moment because they but they're doing it through their
Speaker:behavior. Their behavior is a communication
Speaker:of their emotion.
Speaker:And What we tend to do is
Speaker:we bypass the emotion. We don't address the
Speaker:underlying reason, And we just look at the behavior, and
Speaker:we try to discipline the behavior and get them back in
Speaker:line. And then the moment gets real
Speaker:crappy. Right? All of a sudden,
Speaker:everybody's escalated and, you know, your kid doesn't comply and all
Speaker:of that. So when you have these runaway moments,
Speaker:what ideally I want you to do is just recognize
Speaker:that they've happened or that they're happening. So in the moment,
Speaker:you've got your little kid, and they're on the driveway, and the
Speaker:neighbor's still standing there. And you are
Speaker:looking to your neighbor, and you're like, excuse me for a second.
Speaker:Okay? And you You actually interrupt your adult
Speaker:conversation to address your child's emotional
Speaker:upset. When you are at the restaurant.
Speaker:Excuse me for a minute. And you take the child aside
Speaker:or you you sit next to them. If
Speaker:you're at home and everybody's out of bounds,
Speaker:go into the situation and calmly say,
Speaker:We need to talk here for a second. Come over here. Right?
Speaker:If you're if you're in line and everybody is starting to get
Speaker:wild, I want you to regroup. I want you to come back
Speaker:together to take a pause break. You know, I teach
Speaker:the pause break For you as the parent to
Speaker:regulate yourself and to, you know, calm your
Speaker:nervous system, It's the pause break is, you know, stop what
Speaker:you're doing, reset your body, reset your mind, and
Speaker:then start again. So I want you to
Speaker:think about, like, a pause break as a mom with your
Speaker:kids and really taking on some
Speaker:leadership and some energy of, like, I'm actually in control
Speaker:here. I know how to do this. I know how to reset
Speaker:these moments. I can come back and
Speaker:connect with my kid. So you're stopping
Speaker:Whatever's happening, and you're taking your child aside, I
Speaker:can't I can only tell you how many times I have done this with my
Speaker:kids. Even now When we have
Speaker:runaway moments and everybody's starting to get tense or
Speaker:I'm starting to get tense, and we pause And
Speaker:we regroup. So I take a pause break as a
Speaker:family sometimes or as a mom with my kids or with 1
Speaker:kid. I pause and I go, hey.
Speaker:What's going on here? I validate
Speaker:The circumstance, the emotional, what's happening, like like, really
Speaker:narrating what's happening. So when the this is the connection tool
Speaker:in action. So it's like narrating the circumstance, narrating
Speaker:what's happening, and then naming the emotion.
Speaker:So the connection tools narrate, name, Now
Speaker:what? It really is a process of resetting a crappy
Speaker:moment. So we are stopping. We're
Speaker:regrouping. We're connecting back, And then we'll look at our
Speaker:child. So imagine the driveway situation. Right?
Speaker:Instead of, you know, threatening and things like that, you
Speaker:turn to your child and you say, hey. Right? Were you
Speaker:excited to watch the show and you're worried I'm not gonna start it?
Speaker:Could really say the thing out loud. Narrate the
Speaker:circumstance. Narrate the situation. Give some
Speaker:words to it. I'm thinking
Speaker:about, you know, my family vacation
Speaker:this past week in San Francisco and How many times
Speaker:we had a lot of, like, really crazy things happen with our
Speaker:rentals, and they were pretty disruptive for our family. And
Speaker:so we had to do a lot of regrouping because emotions
Speaker:got high, feelings got high, and it's like
Speaker:Just stopping and looking at each other and being like, yeah. This is
Speaker:hard. We thought it was gonna go one way, and now it's going this
Speaker:way. And this is a really challenging circumstance.
Speaker:So let's just get through this and move forward.
Speaker:That that's leadership. There's so much value in doing
Speaker:that. And I I think we get overwhelmed in the
Speaker:moment. Not I think. I know we get overwhelmed in the moment, and it
Speaker:just feels like Fix it, change it, stop it, solve it. Do anything I can
Speaker:to get control back and power back over and shut these kids down
Speaker:and, you know, and I don't wanna judge you for that. Like, that's so
Speaker:normal, but you see it. It closes sideways.
Speaker:It gets worse. It gets even more crappy. So
Speaker:whenever you start to sense that that's happening
Speaker:or it's already happened, what I'm inviting you to is to
Speaker:go, Okay. Let's pause.
Speaker:Let's connect. When that connection is narrating what's
Speaker:happening, naming the emotion. So on the driveway,
Speaker:you say, I understand it's hard to wait. I am going to
Speaker:put on the show after I'm done listening to our neighbor
Speaker:Tell us her story. You can wait next to me as long as
Speaker:you wait quietly, or you can go inside, get set up on
Speaker:the couch, and wait inside. I'm coming in. I Promise.
Speaker:So you're really narrating it out. What are you gonna do? And then you turn
Speaker:your shot. What are you gonna do? Are you gonna stay here and be quiet,
Speaker:or are you gonna go inside? He gives them empowerment.
Speaker:You soothe that anxiety.
Speaker:Now a lot of times, Especially if you've done this, you
Speaker:know, throughout like, once you take the course and all of that and you've, like,
Speaker:have the skill, your kids kinda trust. Like, okay. She saw
Speaker:my need. I feel validated. I feel seen. I'm soothed. I'm
Speaker:okay. I'm gonna go inside. I'm a go inside. Right? They might be grumpy about
Speaker:it. That's okay. Right? It they they
Speaker:they might be like, no. Come in now, mommy.
Speaker:Right? They it might not be something they're capable of doing
Speaker:at that time. And so that means just looking back at your
Speaker:child your the Neighbor or whatever on the driveway and just being like, hey.
Speaker:It looks like I gotta go inside. Thanks for telling me your story. Let let
Speaker:me touch base with you later. Or sometimes
Speaker:it's like a restaurant situation. You're like, okay. This is way too much. I'm
Speaker:gonna go sit in the car for a minute. I'm gonna call on this kid.
Speaker:I'm gonna connect with them. I'm gonna Regulate their nervous
Speaker:system. Oh, looks like we're not gonna be able to stay in line
Speaker:here. I'm gonna get out of line. I'm gonna go to the back of the
Speaker:line and just Start over. Like, can
Speaker:you choose your peace
Speaker:in that moment? Can you choose your kids' emotional
Speaker:well-being in that moment? Can you Move
Speaker:like like, let go of some of the plan in your head or
Speaker:the circumstance in your head and just start over.
Speaker:That is resetting a crappy moment, to be honest. It's like
Speaker:you you pause. You regroup. You connect. You
Speaker:limit set. Stay quietly outside or wait
Speaker:inside. And then if they fail,
Speaker:they can't do it. You then have a
Speaker:child who's very dysregulated. That is not
Speaker:the time to start consequences.
Speaker:It is your brain is gonna tell you to start threatening and
Speaker:punishing. And I'm saying if you
Speaker:add more threat In the moment, you're gonna just
Speaker:escalate it even more. So instead,
Speaker:you turn to the neighbor, say, it looks like I'm gonna need to help this
Speaker:one out a little bit. I'll talk to you later. You
Speaker:go inside, and then you can reset again. You see, now that we're
Speaker:inside, I'm happy to turn on the show as
Speaker:long as we get these groceries put away or, you know, you
Speaker:guys, you know, put your socks and shoes away,
Speaker:get get your blanket set up. You know, as long as you go get the
Speaker:popcorn out of the pantry and hand it to me, you you can pull
Speaker:them in to a little task. Right? So
Speaker:imagine you're at a restaurant, and you say, you know, Looks like we can't stay
Speaker:inside this restaurant anymore. We're gonna go inside. We're gonna go in the car for
Speaker:a few minutes, and we'll see if we can make it back in here. Or
Speaker:you just, you know, have a crying kid and you grab the check and you
Speaker:walk you know, you pay and you're just like, well, that was
Speaker:Esther. Right? But then in the car, instead of coming
Speaker:at this is why we don't go to restaurants. You guys are so disrespectful, and
Speaker:how can you do this? And you never listen to me. Like, don't do that.
Speaker:I want you to see that what happened in that moment is that your
Speaker:child just couldn't cope. The self
Speaker:regulation skill was lacking.
Speaker:Your ability to soothe them in that moment wasn't there.
Speaker:So we're gonna just keep moving forward and not creating
Speaker:more junk. When
Speaker:we have a circumstance like that And we have to leave the
Speaker:restaurant. We have to move the line. We have to, like,
Speaker:leave the birthday party, or we get to something late.
Speaker:That is why I teach delaying a consequence.
Speaker:Because if you feel like your kid is just getting away with it and
Speaker:not having to, you know, make make it
Speaker:right, you're gonna get resentful. You're gonna start
Speaker:to feel really angry and And your child's
Speaker:not gonna learn that their behavior has an impact. So
Speaker:it's like the model is that Feelings
Speaker:drive behavior, and behavior has impacts.
Speaker:So your child, their feelings are valid, their behavior makes
Speaker:sense, And they're still responsible for the impact of their
Speaker:behavior. So in the model that I teach in the
Speaker:calm mama process, that is all about, like, correction.
Speaker:Right? It's like bringing the impact of their behavior back
Speaker:to them, but we do that in a delayed way.
Speaker:Because if you start adding consequences in the
Speaker:car and threatening and doing all of that be you know, that
Speaker:behavior that we do, You're not actually giving
Speaker:your child a chance to let their nervous system calm down
Speaker:and then talk it through And talk about yeah. That's
Speaker:hard. In line, we're it's really difficult. At restaurants, it's really
Speaker:difficult. At at grandma's house, When, you know, we're trying to leave
Speaker:and grandma keeps talking, yes. That's really hard. Or when
Speaker:I'm at when I'm at pickup and I'm talking to the other moms and you
Speaker:wanna talk to me, that's Challenging circumstance. Let's talk
Speaker:about what we can do in the future. So we're gonna
Speaker:just really calm and reset all of
Speaker:that Junk, a crappy moment, instead of bringing
Speaker:it into the next moment. So this
Speaker:Pause break for everyone, this, like, family pause break
Speaker:is really for you to sort of calm yourself, connect with
Speaker:everybody, Set some limits. See where their brain is at. See if they
Speaker:can stay in the moment. And then if they can't,
Speaker:you're gonna have to pivot. That's okay. And
Speaker:then if the pivot costs you anything, it has an
Speaker:impact, then we're gonna pass that impact back onto our kids
Speaker:later. That's a topic for a different, podcast
Speaker:episode, and it's also something that I teach in the 6 week emotionally healthy
Speaker:kids class. It's like the whole model is I'm gonna call
Speaker:myself. I'm gonna connect with the emotional situation that
Speaker:my kid is in. I'm gonna set a limit and give them
Speaker:some choice so that they can reset themselves. If
Speaker:they can't and they create a problem, I'm gonna call you know, have a correction
Speaker:later. So this episode that
Speaker:I'm I'm sharing with you is all about kinda how to
Speaker:maneuver through those hard moments,
Speaker:How to take that take that beat. Right?
Speaker:Regroup, pause, connect, limit
Speaker:set. See where their brain is at.
Speaker:When you do this, What you are actually teaching
Speaker:your children long term is how to
Speaker:pause and reset themselves.
Speaker:We want our kids to be able to
Speaker:notice that they're getting dysregulated, that
Speaker:they are starting to feel overwhelmed, that they
Speaker:are frustrated, that they're angry, that they're overwhelmed, that they're worried, that
Speaker:they're stressed, that they're, hurt that they're sad.
Speaker:That is the the definition of
Speaker:emotional literacy is I know what I'm
Speaker:feeling. I know how to talk about it, and I know what to do with
Speaker:it. So with our kids, when we
Speaker:are teaching them emotional literacy. That's the skill of
Speaker:self regulation. It's like, oh, okay. I am aware
Speaker:that I am Starting to get overwhelmed or upset.
Speaker:And I need to communicate that, and I need to
Speaker:do something about it. So when you pause and you take
Speaker:a pause break and you reset a crappy moment,
Speaker:you're setting your kids up for long term Emotional health.
Speaker:It's so amazing. And my kids are
Speaker:older, and I've I've been doing this process since Lincoln was
Speaker:4. Right? That's when I first started to practice this type of
Speaker:parenting. He's 19. So for 15
Speaker:years of his life, I didn't do I did it clumsily in the
Speaker:beginning, and I still do it clumsily sometimes. But
Speaker:He is able and he has, you know, 80 severe ADHD and
Speaker:was very dysregulated as a child and had a lot of behavior issues.
Speaker:But now through the years, he's able to stop and
Speaker:reset himself, take a pause break himself
Speaker:because of the modeling. Sawyer too. He's a totally
Speaker:different, you know, type of kid, and he's hot headed.
Speaker:And he gets fired up, but he is able,
Speaker:even as a young man at 17, to stop
Speaker:and go, well, I'm just really upset, mom. This is
Speaker:really hard. This is overwhelming. I don't want it
Speaker:to be like this. I wish we weren't here. I wish it wasn't like this.
Speaker:So he knows what he's feeling. He knows how to talk about it, And he
Speaker:knows what to do with it. We are all always learning what to do with
Speaker:big feelings. Right? That's like like life skill
Speaker:forever. So this episode, I hope it really helped
Speaker:you to understand, like, you know,
Speaker:When you feel like things are starting to go off the rails and your kids
Speaker:are escalating and things are just really hard and
Speaker:feel awful, I want you to take a pause
Speaker:break with everyone. That's your takeaway.
Speaker:So for this week, just practice it. Just notice.
Speaker:Hey. Everyone seems a little out of sorts. Come together. I used to think of
Speaker:it literally like I'm gonna gather all my chicks under my
Speaker:skirt. Like, I had this picture. I don't know. It was from a children's book
Speaker:or something of, like, mama hen or whatever. I don't know. And then all her
Speaker:chicks were, like, in her skirt, and And I would just be like, oh, this
Speaker:is like me gathering my chicks moment. And and I
Speaker:would just kinda hold that leadership energy and bring
Speaker:my children to me and kinda I'm like even now while I'm saying this,
Speaker:I'm like circling my hands together. And I would just be like, okay,
Speaker:guys. This is rough. What's happening? What do we need here?
Speaker:You're kicking. You're hitting. You're punching. You're spitting. You're complaining. You're whining. You're grabbing.
Speaker:Obviously, you have some big feelings. What do we need? Yep. This
Speaker:is hard. And then, you know, resetting, like, let's
Speaker:let's play I Spy. Let's play Tic Tac Toe. Let's let you know? Let's do
Speaker:I you know, Simon Says, whatever. Bringing
Speaker:them back in and engaging them. Okay.
Speaker:I Love this episode for you. I really think it's gonna
Speaker:help you a ton to just kind of feel like, oh, okay. Them
Speaker:having a crappy moment. Let's reset. I'm having a crappy moment. Let's
Speaker:take a pause break. So that's what your takeaway is for this week.
Speaker:And your other takeaway for this week is if you haven't signed up for the
Speaker:emotionally healthy kids class, then you need to sign up. I don't know. I
Speaker:I it's like the best program that I've ever put together.
Speaker:It's 6 weeks. I teach you the entire calm mama
Speaker:process. It's in a small group. We learn it live together. All the
Speaker:moms in there are amazing. This upcoming session,
Speaker:there's a few moms with, like, 3, 4 year olds and a few moms
Speaker:with, like, 8 or 9 year olds, so I think it's gonna be a really
Speaker:good mix of kind of, different
Speaker:examples, and then you can really learn the process because the process is
Speaker:always the same. We're always calming ourselves. We're always connecting. We're always setting
Speaker:a limit, and we're always thinking about the consequence and correction. So I
Speaker:love I love it. It's $500. You get the course, the 6
Speaker:weeks that's taught live by I mean, you get the calm mama handbook, which
Speaker:I'm currently sprucing up, and it's gonna be even better than
Speaker:it already has been. And then you also get 4 months
Speaker:of Membership in the calm mama club, which the biggest
Speaker:perk of that is that you get to book private 15 minute sessions with me
Speaker:every week. And so you get that just as a bonus as for
Speaker:signing up for the class. So you get the 6 weeks, and then you have
Speaker:additional time where you get to practice what you learn and get
Speaker:support from me as you implement it all. And then when that 4 months is
Speaker:up, you can renew and stay in the club for another $500 for the whole
Speaker:year. So I love the program. I I I just if you haven't if
Speaker:you're not signed up, just sign up. That's all I can say. If you're curious
Speaker:about it, you can book a consultation with me. So go to calm
Speaker:mama coaching.com. It's right there under programs, emotionally
Speaker:healthy kids class. We start Thursday, January 18th.
Speaker:So This comes out on Thursday, and so the following
Speaker:Thursday is when we start. So you have a week if you're hearing this when
Speaker:it first comes out to sign up, And I'd love to see you there. I'd
Speaker:love to meet you, get to know your family, and just support you in your
Speaker:journey to become a calm mama. Alright, mama.
Speaker:I hope you have a great week, and I will talk to you