“I can’t!” It’s a statement children make when their BIG feelings are really weighing on them or when something feels overwhelming. We can choose to respond by replying “yes you can!” but that only helps some of the time.

Calm down tools are specific outlets to help your child process their big feelings in a healthy way. The goal is not to teach your child to “fix” their emotions, but rather provide them with healthy coping tools that support their regulation skills when the big feelings do happen.

Having realistic expectations for children rather than how we think they ‘should’ behave can dramatically affect the way we see our children, the way we parent and the way we experience parenting.

Often bedtime can be a challenging time of the day and we hear how hard caregivers are trying to carry out bedtime. The key to a bedtime routine is that it is ‘short and sweet’.