How to Get Present When the Toddler Is Mid-Tantrum

The first two posts in this series were about that angry little toddler in your head. The default mode network. The voice inside your head that is not really you.

That's the hard part to actually accept. Because at least for me, that internal dialogue always felt like who I was. It's the voice I hear when I read. The voice I hear when I think. I spent decades assuming that voice was me. It isn't. There's something underneath it: that breath, that moment of awareness that is more than just words and internal commentary.

The first two posts explored that. And if you've had any kind of trauma (most of us have, by the way: look up the ACEs test, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and see where you land), that early wiring runs deep and colors the dialogue you have with yourself for decades. One of the more sobering things I've come across is the idea that the way you talk to your kids becomes their internal dialogue later in life. Build them up. That's all I'll say about that.

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