How to manage your temper with little kids

Mark Staufer Co-Creator, Dadsaster, shares advice for parents on ways to help control their temper around little kids when they are being difficult
Parenting Tips | Managing Your Temper With Little Kids
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How to manage your temper with little kids

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How do I manage my temper with children? Well you know what, I think that anyone - I'm going to say this thing again - anyone who says to you, even if you're the Dalai Lama, and I'm not sure if he has kids, but even if he has kids, I'm sure he gets really, really, really pissed off with them sometimes. Kids are these little things that have been put on earth to try us. And their one single motivation is to get around us as parents. They see us as the thing that stands between them and whatever they want. it might be TV, it might be Cheetos, it might be the iPad. We are the Berlin wall. We stand between them and what they want. So they get really really good at pushing our buttons when we don't give them what they want. They have hours of practice of this. That's all they do. For the first 5 years of a child's life, their only job in life is to get round us and to work out ways of hacking us, and work out workarounds. So you've got to prepare yourself. You are going to get angry. You've got to internalize your anger somewhat and maybe find a hobby that you can take out some of your frustration on. You need a healthy sex life. That helps. But I would suggest that screaming inside also helps. Leaving the room. On those occasions when you walk into a room that has been demolished by a child who has written their name in feces on the wall, ripped all the art down, stabbed their pillows, whatever else, peed on the mat, which doesn't happen in our house, but I believe it does happen with some kids, you just need to be able to walk away. You need to get up. You need to walk out the front door. And you need to count to 10 in many different languages and calm down. That's the only way to cope. Because sometimes I think, we don't hit our kids anymore, at least I don't. I was hit a lot as a child. It didn't do me any harm. But it didn't do me any good either. It really didn't stop me from misbehaving one iota. In fact for me it was like let's get that out of the way so I can get back to what I was doing rather than any long-term consequences. But I think the really important thing to remember is that although we don't hit, words can be just as painful, so we've got to be aware of our tempers and what we say to our kids.

Mark Staufer Co-Creator, Dadsaster, shares advice for parents on ways to help control their temper around little kids when they are being difficult

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Mark Staufer

Co-Creator, Dadsaster

Mark Staufer is a New Zealand native living in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. Mark and his co-host, Bryan Erwin have a blog and podcast about the gnarly responsibilities of being fathers. Mark and Bryan can be seen nightly on Disney Jr in their show “Dads."  

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