Children screaming? Throwing tantrums? Giving attitude? Children get angry and teaching children appropriate anger management will depend largely on how you help them to manage their emotions. Anger is an emotion.
People are bound to get angry, however this does not give anyone the allowance to react or lash out how they feel because they are angry. As part of teaching children values managing anger is a necessity in growing up into a balanced adult.
Remember you can get angry – but you do not react in anger!
Here are some helpful tips to deal with anger and to teach children anger management.
- Do not argue with your child when they are angry, as long as it is not a life threatening situation it is better to just continue the conversation later when the child has calmed down.
- You can identify the things that usually signify that your child is either getting angry or about to loose control. Children have preferences and specific triggers so it is best to understand your child, for example a young child who is hungry could be more prone to getting angry. Help the child to identify when he is getting angry so that he can learn to breathe and calm down.
- Point out that anger is not only in the form of yelling there are many other formats of anger such as a bad attitude, harsh tones, mean looks and even keeping malice. Anger well managed in the home will lead to an adult who has control over his or her emotions.
- It is a good idea to revisit the issue after the child has calmed down later, discuss what happened and point out better ways that the issue can be handled next time.
- Teach children to know they can walk away, either when they are angry and need a moment or when they are in a situation with an angry person. It is better to agree to carry on after tempers have cooled.
- Teach children that a harsh words cannot easily be reversed. They should learn to think about what they say and to always be quick to apologize and ask for forgiveness when they hurt someone.
