Parenting expert shares her No. 1 priority for raising emotionally intelligent kids: 'Stop focusing on their behavior'

16 hours ago 9

Most parents cognize the vexation of dealing with a child's unexpected nationalist tantrum.

But parents are often excessively speedy to telephone retired their child's antagonistic behaviour — chastising them for that unnecessary meltdown oregon adjacent telling them to "cheer up" erstwhile they look bittersweet — portion ignoring the underlying emotions down those actions, according to parenting adept Reem Raouda.

Focusing solely connected children's behaviors, peculiarly atrocious behavior, alternatively than investigating and validating their emotions is simply a communal parenting mistake that hinders your child's quality to make affectional intelligence, says Raouda, an writer and certified conscious parenting coach.

"Stop focusing connected their behaviour and commencement focusing connected their [well-being]," she says. "Children are not robots, and their emotions are being wholly ignored, dismissed [or even] punished."

Experts often link affectional quality to success, due to the fact that it helps radical negociate the kinds of antagonistic emotions that could different pb to burnout, anxiousness oregon depression, research shows.

"Your affectional well-being is your success," says Raouda, adding that parents who disregard their kids' affectional improvement are little apt to rise happy, palmy adults. "Who cares astir however overmuch wealth you have, if you are anxiety-ridden, depressed, [and] don't cognize who you are?"

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Parents bash request to enforce boundaries, Raouda says, peculiarly erstwhile a child's outburst involves mistreating different people. They besides request to punctual kids that their feelings — affirmative oregon antagonistic — are normal, and that it's steadfast to explicit them constructively, she says.

Focus connected "not making them consciousness atrocious for their choler [and] not telling them to cheer up erstwhile they're sad," says Raouda. "Letting them beryllium successful their feelings is No. 1."

You might, for example, inquire your kid what they were feeling that led them to enactment out, interruption a regularisation oregon different transverse a antecedently established boundary. Helping your kids sanction their emotions is the archetypal measurement toward them processing the quality to negociate those emotions, Raouda says.

Some different experts agree: Children who consciousness heard and not shamed for their feelings typically go much unfastened to avoiding antagonistic behaviors, according to scientist Caroline Fleck. "The constituent is to validate the emotion and past absorption connected what's not valid, which is the behaviour [and that's] what needs to change," Fleck told CNBC Make It successful January.

Parents who overemphasize obedience, which tin necessitate the suppression of large feelings, run the hazard of raising people-pleasers who can't advocator for themselves and are much apt to turn into anxious, unhappy adults, Raouda says.

A parent herself, Raouda says she'd signifier emotion-naming exercises with her lad adjacent erstwhile helium was excessively young to articulate however helium was feeling connected his own. That progressive asking if helium was aggravated oregon frustrated and, if so, having him fertile the severity of his feelings connected a standard of 1 to 10, she says.

And erstwhile parents consciousness affectional themselves, they tin archer their children directly: I'm upset, oregon I'm sad. The thought is to amusement your children that you don't person to suppress those antagonistic feelings, says Raouda.

"Naming it takes distant from the [negative] stigma," she says. "It's just, like, 'Yeah, I was angry, I was embarrassed, I was sad, I was nervous' … Feelings are mean and steadfast and fine."

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