5 Tips on Raising Emotionally Intelligent Kids
At our Midwest summer camp, we are intentional at striving to maximize our campers’ emotional intelligence. A recent blog from the good folks at Barking up the Wrong Tree has some great advice along those lines. Bullets below:
- Be aware of emotions: Canaries. Coal mines. Sometimes you can ignore the words but if you ignore the underlying feelings you’re going to be cleaning spaghetti off the walls.
- Emotion is an opportunity for intimacy and teaching: The best lessons about dealing with emotions are learned when things get emotional. Yes, this is inconvenient.
- Listen empathetically and validate feelings: Accept all feelings but not all behavior. Don’t interrogate, validate.
- Help them label their emotions: You’ve got the words; they don’t. It works for hostage negotiators so use it to make sure your kids don’t end up talking to hostage negotiators.
- Set limits and help them problem-solve: “We don’t stab Timmy. Now how might we be able to exact revenge in a way that doesn’t leave evidence?”
The whole piece linked here.
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