Tips for Calming an Angry Child

Does your child get angry too often? Anger is a normal emotion and parents should be able to manage it properly to ensure emotional health and well-being of their child. There may be many reasons why your child gets angry – whether she had a tiff with her friend at school or you did something that she disliked. Pre-schoolers and toddlers experienced a wide range of complex emotions, so it is important for the parents to teach their children certain calming strategies that help them control their emotions.

Here are some ways in which you can calm down your angry child:

Get to the Root of the Problem

It is impossible to find out solutions if you don't know the cause. So it is important to get to the root of the problem that made your child angry. Try talking to your child or assess from her behaviour. You can also ask simple questions like did your friend hurt you? Did I do something wrong?

Hug Them Tightly

If your child is too angry to interact, give them a tight hug. It is natural for your child to push you away and resist you; but don't give up. Hug them tight and reassure that everything will be okay. However, this might not work for all the children. If the child gets even more irritated, avoid hugging.

Assign Creative Tasks

Allow your child to de-stress, if she is not willing to talk. Assign creative tasks that will help them drift away from the bad feelings. Drawing, finger-painting, listening to music or playing with a pet helps children to soothe their nerves.

Let Your Child Explode

Allow your child to burst out her emotions. If she wants to shout let her shout, if she wants to stay alone, allow her to do that. Children have their own ways to vent out anger, allow them to do anything that helps them calm down. Once you see they have calmed down, talk to them and find out effective solutions so that if she faces the same problem again she is in a better situation to handle it.

Breathing Exercises

Deep breathing helps control anger and relieves pain, so it is good to teach your child some deep breathing exercises. You must teach when your child is in normal mood. Talk about the benefits and tell them to try it out whenever they are angry. Make sure you stay calm when your child gets angry and breathe with them to bring down the anger. Instruct your child to breathe deeply in a low and soothing voice and count the breaths. Allow them to breathe till 20 counts and then try talking; if she is still not ready try another 20 counts.

If nothing works, it is best to allow your child to spend some time alone. Children find out their own ways to soothe themselves. But if the pangs of anger are too frequent you must meet a child counsellor.