Six calming strategies for kids

There are great strategies you can put in place to improve the situation for you and your kids (Shutterstock)

Keeping kids calm is probably one of the hardest things you can ever do. Children sometimes can’t control their emotions and this leads to all sorts of tantrums.

As a parent, it’s hard to keep up with all this energy exuded by your kids all day. You might even end up getting stressed without actually solving the problem at hand.

However, there are great strategies you can put in place to improve the situation for you and your kids.

Here are some

1. Teach them the breathing game

This is just a fancy way to sneak in breathing exercises that will calm them down. You can train them on how to do it correctly so that whenever they’re feeling out of control, they can relax more.

If they’re showing signs of distress even when you’re in public, pull them to the side and play the breathing game with them. You can even make a song to go along with this calming technique.

2. Get a family pet

Pets are adorable and aside from that, they have health benefits too. Their presence can significantly alleviate stress, anxiety and depression and they’re generally great for maintaining mental health.

Consider getting a pet and involve your kids when choosing and naming one so that they can develop a relationship with them.

They will have a chance to spend time with the family cat or dog, which will always boost their mood.

3. Give them a hug

All your kids could be asking for is a simple hug. Take one or two minutes to embrace them so that they can let those uncomfortable emotions pass.

The security of knowing you’re there with them already solves half the problem.

From there you can encourage them to talk to you about their feelings then help them understand the different emotions they’re experiencing.

4. Play some relaxing music

Music has a lot of power within it. What you choose to play can either make them hyper or tone things down.

If you’re trying to get them ready for bed, create a soothing playlist which will relieve you from the stress of chasing them around the house while trying to get them to sleep. Music will indirectly clear the hyper energy until they’re finally relaxed.

This is much better than letting them spend hours watching TV because that overstimulates the brain.

5. Allow them to outgrow the tantrums

There are times when your attempts to calm them down will fail. At some point you’ll get tired of telling them to relax and the only option is to let them take control of their emotions on their own.

This is a great training technique to help them grow up a little. Besides, all kids go through this attention seeking phase so just ignore them from time to time.

6. Stay calm

Kids can drive you insane and that’s why you also need to arm yourself with strategies to cope so that you don’t lose it all together and make things worse.

You’re free to do those breathing exercises with them or practice being in your own calm bubble until serenity is restored.