Ever wonder how to reconnect after a fight with your child - without the guilt, second-guessing, or endless explaining?

In today’s episode, I’m sharing one of my favorite go-to strategies as a psychologist and a mom for how to reconnect with your child after conflict. It’s evidence-based. And it’s so simple you’ll wish someone taught it to you sooner.

This approach isn’t just about repairing the moment - it’s a powerful tool for teaching emotional regulation and modeling empathy, even when your child is spiraling. I’ll walk you through how to calm a child down when angry, and how to actually talk about what happened... without anyone shutting down.

What we cover in this episode:

• The reason your child resists talking about the conflict - and the story-based strategy that bypasses that wall.
• Why direct logic fails with little kids (and what to do instead for teaching emotional regulation)
• How to use storytelling as a tool for how to reconnect after a fight - without making your child feel blamed or shamed
• The key mindset shift for how to calm a child down when angry and still hold your boundary
• How to reconnect with your child - while still balancing connection and limits.

Listen to the full episode to learn a practical tool you can use tonight (yes, even if your kid just screamed at you). Because how to reconnect after a fight, how to calm a child down when angry, and how to reconnect with your child don’t have to be mysteries - and teaching emotional regulation doesn’t require a PhD.

Hit play, take a breath, and let’s figure this out together.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Episode 18: Transition Anxiety Is Real: Helping a Child Adjust to Change with Storytelling

PCIT Experts

Calm and Connected Program

LET'S CONNECT:

Thriving Child Center

PCIT Experts

Calm and Connected Program

Instagram

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You are listening to Educated Parent, the Parenting Podcast, where I teach you realistic expert parenting hacks to solve your everyday parenting problems so that you can reduce your stress, build your confidence as a parent, and raise thriving children.

Leah Clionsky: And my expert network to you so that we can solve your everyday parenting dilemmas together. I am so glad you're here.

So this is another one of our chats, just us no guests, and I'm going to tell you again about stories. So in a previous episode, I told you why storytelling is so powerful that human beings from the beginning of time have used storytelling as a way of connecting and understanding the world and understanding each other.

Leah Clionsky: We all love a good story. We learned things from stories that happened to other people that we could not hear or understand if someone told us directly to our face, especially young children. So if you have a conflict with your young child, have you ever noticed this? If you try to talk to them about it directly.

Thanks again for spending time with me on Educated Parent. If this episode helped you feel more confident in handling those parent curve balls, hit follow so you never miss an episode. Know a parent who's stuck in the endless cycle of conflicting advice.

Leah Clionsky: Send this their way because we all deserve parenting strategies we can actually trust and hey. If you have a minute, leave a review. Your support helps other parents find real expert backed solutions instead of just another opinion online. One last quick reminder. This podcast offers general advice, but every family is different.

Leah Clionsky: The advice offered in this podcast is not medical advice and is not appropriate for every family. If you need personalized parenting support, connect with an experienced clinician at Thriving Child Center or PCIT experts. That's it for today. Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.