Brie Austin

Kids Often Get Angry

Kids often get angry as we all know. The question remains what to do about it, and how to go about teaching them about anger and how to avoid and/or control it so it doesn’t control them.

In a recent script that I wrote with a colleague at Incognito Worldwide  for a short video for Courage To Change, we addressed these issues and further wrote about them in their blog.

Kids are not born angry. Anger comes from frustration, which can come from an unlimited amount of sources that manifests itself in many different ways.

Kids instinctively act-out when they’re frustrated. They cry, throw tantrums, and sometimes become violent — whether that violence is targeted towards breaking a toy, knocking over a chair, or hitting a person.

It’s been said that God made kids adorable so we don’t kill them, because lord knows that at times kids can get deep under our skin and bring out our furry.

Well-balanced people allow their love for the child to override their momentary rage. At the same time many adults allow it to manifest in yelling, spanking, humiliation and other punishments.

While we as adults may have purged our momentary rage through such actions, what are the subsequent imprints we leave on the child? It would be reasonable to assume that they learn from us:  a feeling of frustration = rage, anger.

So what are we to do? The answer is really pretty simple when you think about it. Teach the child to:

A. Recognize the rise of feelings of anger within them.

B. Teach them appropriate ways to express that without rage, violence or foul language, and;

C. How to calm themselves down; learning to control the anger rather than the anger controlling them.

Kids are our legacy, the evidence that we were once here, and so it goes until the end of humanity as we know it.

Take the time to behave yourself in  a way — that with your cooler head prevailing — you’d like to see your child act now, and subsequently later in life.

Teach by example, not by force, and you contribute to building a better world.

For more on anger management techniques for kids, check out this article and video on Courage To Change.

About Brie Austin

Co-author of I'd Do It Again, he is a columnist/reporter for a variety of magazines in the areas of music, lifestyle, nightlife, travel and business. He also writes business documents and creates copy for websites.