Parents Protecting Their Child From Negative Emotions Can Backfire
A few days I came across a well written article about parenting on the CNBC website. The title of the article is A psychologist shares the 7 biggest parenting mistakes that destroy kids’ confidence and self-esteem.
All seven of the parenting mistakes that the author covers are important to avoid. However, one in particular caught my eye as a mistake that is not talked about enough. The third mistake on the list is protecting a child from their emotions.
The author states:
It’s tempting to cheer your kids up when they’re sad or calm them down when they’re angry. But how we react to our kids’ emotions has a big impact on the development of their emotional intelligence and self-esteem.
Help your kids identify what triggers their emotions and teach them how to self-regulate. Provide them with a framework that helps explain how they feel so they’ll have an easier time dealing with those emotions in a socially appropriate way in the future.
With that said, the ideal way to approach emotional learning with your child is by using the framework of the four domains of emotional intelligence.