“When their baby cries, mothers feel exasperated, afraid, anxious, unloving, resentful and confused.” According to Dr. Aletha Solter in her book, “Tears and Tantrums”: “Children's tears and tantrums elicit strong feelings in adults.
Often when we get angry at our children, it's because we haven't set a limit, and something is grating on us. The minute you start getting angry, it's a signal to do something. No, not yell. Intervene in a positive way to prevent more of whatever behavior is irritating you.
Parents are often triggered by their children because they believe their children's bad behavior makes them look like bad parents. If parents could look at their children's behavior as disinterested parties, as they usually do with their friends, their children's behavior would not have any power over their emotions.
Although most of the studies examined reactions to baby and toddler cries, not preschooler meltdowns, the research showed that crying inspires a range of physiological responses in adults, including increased heart rate, small changes in blood pressure and a shift in galvanic skin responses.
It has to do with the way our brains are wired. We feel a sense of urgency when babies cry. It's almost like a fire alarm goes off in our brains. This is nature's way of making sure we do our jobs: respond to our babies' needs and take care of them!
It can make them behave badly or get physically sick. Children react to angry, stressed parents by not being able to concentrate, finding it hard to play with other children, becoming quiet and fearful or rude and aggressive, or developing sleeping problems.
The parents even called the age of 8 the "hateful eights," which is a little harsh, but the parents noted that tantrums seem to have really intensified around the age of 8.
Parental anxiety is the feeling of worry, fear, and stress related to being a parent or caregiver. Triggers for parental anxiety include worries over a child's learning development, health, well-being, and relationships with others. Parental anxiety can cause a parent to avoid situations or have negative thoughts.
Malicious Parent Syndrome (MPS) is a type of vengeful behavior exhibited by some divorcing or separated parents. It occurs when a parent deliberately tries to place the other bad parent in a bad light and harm their child's relationship with them.
Mom rage symptoms include feeling overcome with anger or frustration, lashing out verbally or physically, feeling out of control of your emotions, and experiencing a sense of being about to snap. This experience usually reflects the feelings of a frustrated mother who has reached her limit of patience or control.
Parenting PTSD. What is it? You're not crazy, nothing is wrong with you, but you may have something called Parenting PTSD and many others have it as well. Parenting PTSD is when becoming a parent triggers old memories, body sensations and experiences, leaving you in a foreign pool of PTSD symptoms.
Misophonia is a disorder in which certain sounds trigger emotional or physiological responses that some might perceive as unreasonable given the circumstance. Those who have misophonia might describe it as when a sound “drives you crazy.” Their reactions can range from anger and annoyance to panic and the need to flee.
For some parents, infancy is the hardest. For others, it's toddlerhood. Some parents feel that the preschool years present special challenges.
They become quite independent as they reach 5-6 years of age, even wanting to help you with some of the chores! This is probably why most parents look at age 6 as the magical age when parenting gets easier.
If you study charts of the brain in growing children, you'll see there's a rapid period of growth in the amygdala, right around four years of age. There's a huge amount of activity going on in this one area of the brain at this time. The brain is growing neurons and synapses almost too quickly for it to keep up.
Too often, our tantrums are born out of feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. Therefore, it's important not to put yourself in a position of feeling chronically overwhelmed by getting upset over every little annoying thing your child does. One way to combat this is to think hard about what is most important.
A toxic mother creates a negative home environment where unhealthy interactions and relationships damage a child's sense of self and their views of relationships with others. Over time, it increases the risk of poor development in the child's self-control, emotional regulation, social relations, etc1.
“For instance, a baby may not remember explicitly the time they were yelled at in the kitchen booster seat when they were 6 months old, but their body remembers the way it recoiled, the way it pumped blood to increase oxygen to the muscles in response to feeling unsafe,” Keith explains.
Unrelenting anger can sometimes be a sign of a mental health condition. While challenges with emotional regulation can be a symptom of several conditions, Ogle indicates that anger can often relate to: anxiety disorders. depression.