Critical Steps To Take When Your Child Has A Meltdown

Do you give in to the tantrums of your children or discipline them?

Parenthood is challenging. It gets even more challenging when your kid throws unreasonable tantrums or has meltdowns. It becomes confusing as to what you should do as a parent and nothing seems to work. You fear that showing too much love at that moment might spoil them. Again, being harsh and strict with them would also make the situation worse. So, what do you do in such a situation? Be calm and follow a few steps that are critical to understanding the reason of the meltdown while also bringing it to an end. Here are the critical steps that you should take when your child is having a meltdown.

Calm Yourself Down First

The first step towards dealing with your kid’s meltdown is keeping yourself calm. It will not help the situation if both of you are losing it and throwing a tantrum at each other. This will make the situation worse. If you are not calm yourself, you cannot calm down your kid. Breathe a little, do a little countdown and get ready to behave like the adult in the relationship that you are.

Give Them Something To Play With

This is a sensory technique that could calm your child down immediately. Give them a ball that they can squeeze or play dough to play with. Anything that will engage them into some constructive work will do the job. This will engage their senses and keep them distracted from the reason of the meltdown, if there was one in the first place. Doing this step will relieve them of the stress and you will see your kid’s nerves calming down.

Build A Connection With Your Kid

At the moment of the meltdown, being strict with them will not help. In fact, it will do the opposite of what you intend. Build a connection with your child at the moment. Just sitting with them and listening to them will make them feel heard. Listen to their concerns without judging them. May be plant a peck on their cheeks to show your love and affection for them. Talk with them or simply spend time doing something that they love. Building a connection with them will make them open up to you and you will figure out the reason of the meltdown. Also, it will help them calm down.