Feelings & Parenting

We coach kids through anger and worry — then skip right past happy. Why naming and savoring the good feelings builds a more resilient kid, not just a cheerful one.

A joke, a look, a “you can’t play” — and your child crumples. Why hurt feelings hit young kids so hard, and how to help without trying to toughen them up.

A kid who goes still and silent in a big moment can look like attitude. Usually it’s fear — and they can’t reason their way calm, they borrow yours. Here’s how to help.

The popsicle hit the ground, and so did the entire afternoon. It was just a popsicle. There are three more in the freezer — you said so, gently, reasonably, offering the obvious fix — and somehow that made it worse. Now there are tears like you’ve never seen, tears that seem way too big for…

It’s 7:40 in the morning and your kid’s stomach hurts. Again. It hurt yesterday too, right about now, and the day before — and funny how it never seems to hurt on a Saturday. You’re not a monster. You’ve checked the forehead, asked the questions. And part of you is quietly doing the math —…

She grabbed the toy straight out of his hands. He looked you dead in the eye and said he didn’t do it — evidence still in his fist. She woke up swinging at the whole world over nothing you can find. And you feel that familiar fork in the road: do I correct this, or…

The cracker broke in half. You handed it over the same way you’ve handed over a thousand crackers, and your child stared at the two pieces like the world had ended — and then it did end, loudly, on the kitchen floor. Or it was the wrong cup. Or you peeled the banana “wrong.” Or…