Got An Angry Kid ?
We spend most of our time trying to control anger in children by giving them what they are giving us: Anger for anger. Does it work? If your intention is to teach a child that anger is bad, you will never teach him or her with anger. Getting the child to respect you and direct his anger elsewhere depends on how angry the child is. You may teach the occasionally angry child that he is best advised to direct angry any place but at you.
If you have a child who is angry all the time and as a result makes you angry all the time, then he is likely to spread his feelings all over the landscape: upwards, downwards and sideways. Now you’ve got problems because he doesn’t care who gets his anger. It is this child who needs a different parental anger strategy. No anger display from you. Period. So now we have two angry people. Great. For the most part, adult anger, when directed to an annoying child, is an adult tantrum, no matter how justified the adult thinks it is. Adult tantrums do not produce the change adults want: respect. Respect is vital in child control. Self-control is how you get it.
