Raising a child has many tasks and duties. Our goal is to raise a child who is well and thrives – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. One of the most challenging areas is dealing with a child’s emotional health and the resulting behaviors. Some of the challenge with this is that many parents themselves are not skilled in identifying and handling their emotions in healthful ways.
Even early in infancy you are helping your infant manage emotions, generally expressed through crying. We often want to stop crying as quickly and efficiently as possible, but for infants this is the way they express and release “negative” emotions from the body. Crying often triggers an emotional response and series of thoughts about how well (or not) the parent is doing as a parent and how things may go in the future. Being present to your thoughts and emotions while your baby is crying and identifying how you react (body, mind, heart, and spirti) to your baby’s crying, will help you grow in developing your own skills in dealing with your emotions and your baby as he/she develops!
We love connection-based parenting approaches and recommend resources related to connection-based parenting. And we recommend you start learning these skills now, as your child’s emotional world will only continue to grow bigger in the coming months and years.
You might consider perusing the following sites and going back to them from time to time:
