A mom seeks advice for dealing with her twin three-year-olds' challenging behaviors, including constant screaming and intentional misbehavior. The podcast host emphasizes understanding children's emotional processing, the importance of not fixing or calming their emotions, and viewing challenging behavior after positive experiences as normal. Building resilience and setting boundaries are also discussed.
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Quick takeaways
Understanding children's challenging behaviors as signs of emotional processing is crucial in effectively responding.
Shifting the perspective from trying to calm children down to accepting and acknowledging their feelings is key in respectful parenting.
Deep dives
Understanding the Challenging Behavior
The overwhelmed mom has twin three-year-olds and a newborn. The twins have been through multiple transitions, including living with their grandmother, having their dad deployed, and the arrival of a new brother. The daughter twin screams constantly while the son twin refuses to listen and intentionally does things he knows he shouldn't. The mother feels at a loss and overwhelmed. It is explained that these behaviors are typical ways children process their feelings, either through acting out like the daughter or displaying defiance like the son. Understanding these behaviors as signs of emotional processing is crucial in effectively responding.
Shifting Perspective and Accepting Feelings
The podcast suggests a shift in perspective for the overwhelmed mom. Instead of trying to calm her daughter down or take her son's behavior personally, she is encouraged to accept their feelings and behavior as a necessary part of their emotional development. The mother's instinct to fix their behavior or make them feel good all the time is explored, and it is highlighted that trying to calm them down is fruitless and not the parent's responsibility. The importance of accepting and acknowledging the children's feelings, instead of trying to change them, is emphasized.
Practical Approaches in Dealing with the Behavior
Practical strategies are provided for dealing with the challenging behavior of the twins. For the daughter's screaming, it is recommended to allow her to release her feelings by accepting and not trying to calm her down. For the son's defiant behavior, it is suggested to accept his refusal while physically helping him transition or stopping unwanted behaviors. The importance of setting boundaries and limits early is emphasized, as well as the need to halt power struggles by not repeating instructions and instead physically guiding the child. It is acknowledged that this process is challenging and might require practice and self-reflection on the part of the parent.
A mom is at her wit's end and describes a series of challenging family separations and transitions, including the birth of a sibling. Now one of her twins yells and screams from morning until night. The other twin is defiant and “is always telling me ‘no’ and doing things he knows he’s not supposed to be doing.” This mom says their behavior is so extreme she spends most of the day in tears and then ends up yelling. She’s looking for Janet’s advice how she might deal with her twins’ behavior.