158. Real Parenting: How We Parent Our Big Reactors

This week we are trying something new. We’ve decided to implement the things that we learned from our interview with Claire Lerner last week. We both have children who we consider to be big reactors. So we took our insights from our conversation with Claire and put them into action in our own homes!

One of Amy’s biggest takeaways was that each of her children might need individualized things. Her big reactor needs to be parented differently than his brothers. Continual praise and more time are a coping mechanism that seem to help.

Abby realized that when these types of kids have these big reactions they aren’t trying to cause a challenge. They are just trying to react in a way that their own body needs. They’re more sensitive, more empathetic, and look at the world in their own unique way.

The thing that we want you to know is that we don’t get it perfect every time. We are learning right alongside you. We are both, everyday, normal moms who aren’t experts. We struggle through this parenting thing as well. And it does get better. Both of our big reactors are around age five now and it has taken us a little longer to learn what parenting techniques work. We are making progress and hope this episode helps you do the same.