Episode #31:

Dr. Feelgood

Have you read “Bittersweet” by Susan Cain? If you consider yourself (or your child) a big feeling person I can’t recommend it highly enough.

As she says, if you like listening to sad music, enjoy a rainy day or feel overwhelmed by beauty sometimes, you can identify with a bittersweet state of mind.

We used to think these deeper, more complex emotions were only felt by adults.

But now we understand that children feel the full rainbow of feelings too.

And here’s a big thought

KIDS TRY TO MAKE US FEEL HOW THEY’RE FEELING

So if your kid is making you feel angry, frustrated, annoyed, scared….

Most likely they’re feeling that way too.

And it’s important that we help our kids understand that ALL feelings are ok and none are good or bad.

Some might be a bit more comfortable to feel, but being a human means we have to (get to?) have them all.

And we can’t have the sweet without the bitter.

On today’s “Good Enough Parenting” podcast I share ways you can increase your child’s emotional literacy, model how feelings shift throughout the day (heck even sometimes the hour!), and teach them how to ride the waves of a feeling without needing to deny or distract from our emotions.

This is deep work. And here’s a spoiler – if you weren’t allowed to experience certain feelings when you were a kid, chances are it’s really difficult for you when you kid shows that emotion now.  

You don’t have to channel your Dr. Feelgood 100% of the time (cue my sister playing Mötley Crüe on repeat in my formative years….)

Just opening the door to feelings talk is good enough.