Are Your Children Allowed to be Angry?
It’s up to us as parents to hold space for our children’s feelings
As a parent, are you comfortable allowing your children to express their anger? Do you rush to shut it down, for fear they, or you, will lose control? Do you see anger as a negative emotion? When it is handled unskillfully it certainly can be. But it can also be a guide. Learning to express our anger in non-harmful ways is healthy, and it is a skill that our children need to be able to navigate this world successfully.
The world is filled with anger. Right now, it seems there is more anger than ever before, or maybe it’s just more in your face in our hyper-connected society. It is certainly true that social media and constant news is fueling the collective anger of citizens around the world.
There is not a single 24 hour news cycle that does not involve someone espousing their anger at some person or group that they feel is responsible for all their woes. Faces screwed up in anger can be found on every news feed. We are an angry species and many of us are not afraid to show it.
But most of us are uncomfortable with anger — ours and other people’s. We do not think anger has a place in a civil society. Certain segments of society are especially not allowed to express their anger, and many of us…
