Opening an Emotional Dialogue with Your Young Child

Melissa, a stay-at-home mother of three children under the age of ten, says, "When my children get mad or have had a bad day and I start talking to them, I feel like I just make things worse. The last time my son got really angry and threw his toys after he had a bad day at school, I got really frustrated and just sent him to his room when I probably should have tried to talk to him about how he felt." She adds, "Usually I just try to make everything better by either buying them toys or making them cookies, I feel really stupid when I ask them to talk to me because I don't know what to say. My parents never asked me what my feelings were; my mom and dad would try to gloss everything over."

Melissa explains that when she used to get upset, her parents would just tell her that "everything would be okay tomorrow."