Narrate Your Own Feelings

Kids learn feeling words mostly by watching the adults around them. If the grown-ups only ever say "I'm fine," that's the ceiling.

So say the quiet part out loud: "I'm frustrated that we're running late, so I'm taking a slow breath." In one line you've modeled three things — the feeling, its cause, and a way to handle it. When a parent names emotions calmly, a child learns that even big feelings are nothing to hide, and that the steady adult in the room is showing them exactly how it's done.