By Sarah Chana Radcliffe
You're at the end of your rope, you're losin' it, it's way too much... The way a parent expresses exasperation, exhaustion and overwhelm can scare the wits out of his or her child. Expressions like "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" or "YOU ARE DRIVING ME CRAZY!" or "I'M OUTTA HERE!" convey to a youngster that life is just too hard to manage. If even the grownups can't cope, there's certainly no hope. So as to avoid inducing trauma and learned helplessness, it's best to limit your musings to something less drastic like, "I need a break," or "I'm going for a walk around the block," or "Some lemonade would be really good right now."
When your child has made a large error, a really big mistake... Make a small thing out of big mistakes so that your child can get up and move forward without being crippled by shame. If the mistake is truly a large one, its own ramifications will teach the child what he or she needs to know. Your outrage, lectures or drama can actually detract and distract the child from the lesson the mistake itself can teach.
