Nurtured Parent, Nurtured Child

06/02/2026

05/14/2026

When a child pushes back again and again, it can start to feel very personal.

Like:
“They’re not listening.”
“They don’t respect me.”
“Nothing I do is working.”

But most of the time, what’s happening is much less intentional than that.

Either:
the boundary isn’t fully clear to you yet
it’s not rooted in something you actually believe in
or
your child is meeting it in a moment where they’re already overwhelmed
And in those moments, their system is going to react—not reflect.

That’s why repeating yourself or adding consequences often doesn’t land the way you want it to.

I wrote more about this—what’s underneath it and how to think about it differently—in my latest piece on boundaries and emotional safety.

If this is something you’re in right now, it will likely resonate.

05/12/2026

There’s a very specific moment where things tend to shift.

You set the boundary.

Your child pushes back.

And internally, something tightens.

It starts to feel like:
“They should be listening.”
“This shouldn’t be this hard.”
“Why are they not respecting this?”

And from that place, the boundary becomes about getting them to comply.

That’s usually when it turns into a power struggle.

Not because you’re doing something wrong—
but because the focus has shifted from:
what you will do
to:
what they need to do

A boundary can exist even if your child doesn’t agree with it.

It can exist even if they’re upset about it.

The work is being able to stay with it
without needing it to “work” immediately.

That’s where your steadiness comes from.

05/06/2026

This is a small shift—but it changes everything.

Instead of:
“How do I get my child to stop?”

It becomes:
“What am I going to do here?”

That’s where your power actually is.

05/03/2026

Which of these feels easiest to try in the moment?

04/15/2026

One of the most powerful shifts in parenting happens when we move from:

“What is wrong with my child?”

to

“What is happening inside my child right now?”

Emotional dysregulation is not a personality trait.

It is a temporary nervous system state.

And children learn how to regulate through the steady presence of an adult who can stay calm during their hardest moments.

Have you noticed a difference in how you respond when you view it this way?

04/01/2026

A simple way to understand your child’s big emotions.

Imagine the brain as a car.

The driver’s seat is the thinking brain (the prefrontal cortex).

This part helps with reasoning, impulse control, and decision-making.

The back seat is the emotional brain.
It reacts quickly to frustration, fear, or excitement.

The trunk represents the nervous system, which controls the body’s stress responses.

Ideally, the thinking brain stays in the driver’s seat.

But when emotions become overwhelming, the emotional brain can push the driver out and start steering the car.

In those moments, children aren’t choosing misbehavior.

Their nervous system has taken over.

That’s why the most helpful first step often isn’t punishment.

It’s helping the nervous system settle so the thinking brain can get back in the driver’s seat.

Understanding this shifts how many parents see behavior.

Instead of asking, “Why is my child doing this?”
we begin to ask, “What might their nervous system need right now?”

If you’ve ever wondered why children have such big emotional reactions, I explain the brain science behind this in my newest blog.

✨ You can read it through the link in my bio.

I’d love to hear from you:

Can you think of a moment when your child’s emotional brain took the driver’s seat?
raisingemotionallyintelligentkids emotionregulation