Life Experience

“Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff.” 
~Catherine M. Wallace

Life experience plays a huge role in stress management. The more life experience we have the more tools we potentially have available to manage our stressful life events. To a child, who possesses less life experience, stressful events can seem catastrophic; hence the crying, screaming, acting out, and other seemingly irrational behaviors. To a child, those behaviors are not irrational; they are the coping tools they have. Be patient with a child when he or she is stressed and help him/her find and learn effective tools for managing his/her stress. 

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