Every morning when she has to go to school, my 5 years old daughter wakes up in a bad mood.

She wants to act as she is a baby. She doesn’t speak, she is whining, and communicates (angrily) with gestures that I don’t really understand the meaning of.

We spoke about it last night, she said she would like me to say “the breakfast is ready!” and then she would come to eat. But it didn’t work that way, she was still grumpy and acted as usual (I guess this is normal, this is taking time).

C: behavior of my daughter
T: This is so unpleasant
F: Irritated
A: Urge to leave the room, to let my daughter having a tantrum alone, don’t do what my daughter wants me to do, give up understanding what she wants, judge her as being childish, speak with impatience with her
R: I create an unpleasant experience for myself

C: behavior of my daughter
T: Time to connect with my future self
F: excited
A: think about a calm, caring, and playful Future self, breathe, imagine how Brooke would act, focus on myself and my behavior, read my paper with my models
R: I create an interesting experience for me

When I feel irritated, I’m disappointed with myself. And right now I understand intellectually that my behavior depends on my thoughts and not on the behavior of my daughter. But I’m not able to embody it yet. Is this just a matter of practice?

Thanks a lot for your amazing feedback!!