Trusting your child’s feelings…. mmmm… It is easy to dismiss our children’s feelings. Parents don’t always believe what they are saying to us when they tell us they feel something, or we sometimes second guess how they are feeling. We think we are in tune with our children when in fact sometimes we have no idea what they are thinking or feeling.
It is important that parents know how their child feels about things and that they are willing to share those feelings with us instead of keeping them inside. Keeping feelings inside especially when they are big, angry or upset is not helpful as they have nowhere to go, and your child might not have the tools to know what to do with them. Your children will explode and act out if they don’t share their feelings with you and that is not always the best way.
Trusting Your Child’s Feelings
I often have parents who ask me to check out the feelings of their child about home life or how they feel about people in their life, and they are surprised when I feed back to them. They thought their child was having a wobble about something when in fact they felt fine, or the child had stronger feelings than the parents expected.
Checking in with your children with their feelings and trusting that what they say to you is important. We don’t want to be worrying about them when they are doing okay but they also need to know that it is okay to not be okay. So having a good line of communication will help as well as sharing your feelings about things.
Trust what your child is telling you and accept what they say when it comes to what they feel. For more information on feelings and how to help your child deal with them, learn more about my book, The Parent’s Toolkit.
Alternatively contact me to see how I can help if you feel like your child could do with a sprinkle of confidence, self-esteem or help at school or home. There are so many benefits to life coaching for children.
