Tips on how to build emotional intelligence for your child
What is emotional intelligence?
“Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.” Psychology Today
This is the definition of emotional intelligence or “EI”. Now, let’s think why is it so crucial for our young children to acquire EI early on. We know that we are emotional beings and we start demonstrating our emotions as soon as we are born. How many of us still struggle to manage our emotions now as adults?
Now imagine you can provide the support and tool set NOW when your children are just toddlers. First and foremost, we need to allow children to express their emotions.
Expressing emotions- What does that even mean? A child is naturally inclined to show or express their emotions. However, many times we (adults) try to stop or in many ways hinder them from genuinely expressing themselves. How many times do we say “Stop whinning”, “Boys don’t cry” or even worse “I don’t want to hear it”. All these saying and others similar to these send the message that we don’t want our children to express their emotions. I understand, many times we are frustrated and overwhelmed ourselves. But, and that’s a big BUT we must allow our little ones to truly express their emotions. They are little humans that need…
