Feelings... Nothing More Than Feelings..

Living with an almost 3 year old is a bit like sharing a house with a teenager/pregnant woman/retiring 60-something man. There are a lot of emotions and they change on the daily. Sometimes on the minute. We go from elation to frustration to mysterious to defeated to mischievous to just plain happy sometimes in the span of one walk across a room. And if she runs into another human being in that time frame, all bets are off depending on whether or not she is ready to interact with you.

It has become my biggest parenting job to help her identify, experience, and then figure out how to deal with this barrage of emotions. Adults don't do it well, how do we expect a kid to do it? But we press on navigating the turgid waters of what we around here like to call the Emotional Hijack. That moment when I have just started to become comfortable in the way things are going and am pretty confident that I know how she will react to something. I am prepared. All bases covered. En Garde. And then....WHAM. KAPOW. BLAM. Emotions are flying at me left and right from the sweet body of my favorite daughter. The Emotional Hijack. Beware... it catches you off guard and can ruin even the best of afternoons at the park.

Here is a pictograph of emotional examples. See Curious George table for reference.