Education
Join the Discussion at the FB Group! Sparkler Parents Podcast Share an example of a time when you did not use your executive brain while parenting? I used to do this a lot more related to behaviors my children did or if my husband was about to arrive at home and one of the kids just made a big mess, I would yell, where as, if that same mess was made 30-45 minutes earlier I may not have yelled at my child the same way. What changed? The context changed. The fact that I just cleaned up and my husband expects a neat home when he returns increased my stress level and then with the new mess of Cheerios all of the floor (insert whatever mishap), I explode my stress out all of my child. If my executive parenting system was better developed, I would have been able to de-escalate myself. But even in after the stress explosion, I have some things I can do. I can take some breaths, I can step outside for a minute. I can apologize and hug my child. I can text my husband and just let him know what to expect when he gets home. It is not that big of a deal...slowing down helps us (and our kids) get our executive functioning back online.