Yes, I’ve cried in the car too 💔

Sometimes doing what our child needs rather than what they want takes all the courage we can muster. You are not alone if you find it challenging.

That’s why I want to share this short video with Sharon Cameron, the wonderful child counsellor and therapist who joined me for the Chaos to Calm masterclass. She talks about her own son, Ollie, and a moment when she had to encourage him to follow through with something he was anxious about.

🎥 Watch the full masterclass: Chaos to Calm. It's free!
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Transcript

it's a really hard thing for parents to do
yeah it's definitely a hard thing to do
this was Ollie
and he had been doing some volunteer work down at a sailing club
um a local sailing club
and he'd been on the first day and he came home and he was exhausted
and it had been really hard work
and he wasn't um
as big as a lot of the other kids
it had been difficult he'd said to me
mum kids are really hard to work with
uh and so
then he had convinced himself that night that he wasn't going back
and that he wasn't able to do it
and it was too hard for him
so the next morning we
we get in the car and he is completely overwhelmed and anxious
and he's I don't want to go
and I knew that he needed to go
he committed to going so it was important
I knew he was safe
and I knew that I needed to push him in that situation
we sat in the car he was really distressed
and then he was like I don't wanna go in looking like this
so we took a few minutes to regroup
and then I didn't physically push him out of the car
but I encouraged him strongly
and it was tricky and I
he got out and I drove around the corner
and I just burst into tears because it's hard
it's hard challenging our kids
it's hard pushing them
it's hard seeing them in an uncomfortable situation
he was a bit older with that one
so I also knew how far I could push him and
you know you just have to go with your gut
that night when he came home
he thanked me um
which was incredible so
he knew
he was at that age and stage where he knew that when he pushed through
that he could then store that information away
and it would make things easier next time
he also knew that he committed
so he didn't want to look like he
you know hadn't followed through with that situation
so yeah
it's hard but it's really important that we do that
otherwise the anxiety is just being fed
and next time it just gets harder and harder
yeah yeah
and I um
have also had situations where I have
forced my children to do things that I know that they can do
yes that I know they'll be proud of themselves if they don't
if they do it and
but then I would feed anxiety if they didn't do it
and I have also cried in the car