In this episode, Justine and Jenny talk feelings. We all have them, and sometimes they can be a challenge. Even as parents and caregivers, we still have our feelings while trying to help support our children. We discuss why it's important to teach and talk about emotions, because as adults we need to be able to manage/self-regulate and express emotions appropriately, and we want to raise children into humans who are ok to be around. We chat strategies and structures and why those big emotional displays can sometimes be an indication that something is not quite right.
Mentioned in this episode:
· Concept of ‘taught not caught’
· Strategies and structures
· Tiredness can be a big factor in meltdowns
· Hunger less so, but can be relevant
· Sometimes big emotional displays are a sign a parent needs to probe a bit more, be curious about where it’s coming from
· Mood swings
· The idea of a world made for extroverts, and how introverts manage
· Importance of parents being curious and not interrogating
· Encouraging children to come up with self soothing strategies (that are healthy and sustainable)
· Importance of being aware of other people’s emotions, especially important for developing empathy and learning about respect
· Reading books – with young children, looking at the character illustrations and pointing out facial expressions
· Empathy and the connection to fiction – imagining how things are for others
· Anger and society/cultural attitudes; gender differences between expression of anger (girls/boys)
· How can we teach our children to manage their anger in healthy ways
· The importance of apology – techniques of apologising and accepting apologies. Parents need to model how to apologise
Correction: difference between feelings and emotions. Many people use interchangeably but there is a technical difference
Resources and other things we mention in this episode:
Before Your Teenagers Drive You Crazy, Read This!: Battlefield Wisdom for Stressed-Out Parents, by Australian author Nigel Latta
Lena Dunham podcast – The C Word (not educational, more a contemporary cultural look at women and how they’ve been labelled mad and bad, or ‘crazy’)
Please visit our website sexeducationaustralia.com.au where you can listen to our other episodes and also browse our pages for more resources, information and support. General primary resources are listed here: https://sexeducationaustralia.com.au/resources-2/resources-for-parents/ and secondary resources here: https://sexeducationaustralia.com.au/resources-2/secondary-resources/
Send us questions or comments to THATsexedpodcast@gmail.com
