Helping Children to Regulate Feelings of Disappointment

Picture this scenario: a relative just gave your child a wrapped Christmas present. Your child rips off the wrapping paper, takes one look at the beautiful t-shirt they received, and throws it aside with a scowl on their face.

Has this ever happened in your family? Well, it happened to Alexandra Eidens, the founder of Big Life Journal.

As readers will know, The Yass Phoenix is a fan of Big Life Journal, which is a tool for children and adults to teach the principles of having a growth mindset. Having a growth mindset means you thrive on challenges and don’t see failure as a way to describe yourself but as a springboard for growth and developing your abilities. Your intelligence and talents are all susceptible to growth.

Alexandra’s experience with her disappointed son made her think long and hard about how to teach children to show gratitude, even when they receive something they don’t like.

After much thought, she decided we need to focus less energy on teaching manners and more on helping our children learn to regulate feelings of disappointment and anxiety so that these big feelings don’t cloud their ability to express gratitude and thoughtfulness over Christmas.

To this end Alexandra and her team have created a free printable Social Skills Card Game to help children rehearse tricky Christmas scenarios.

By practicing the scenarios in this card game, your child can rehearse how they might react in one of the many tricky scenarios they’ll face in real life this Christmas.

• Topics:

• Mental Health & Wellbeing