Starts October 20th And Doesn't End Until January 2nd
Oct 28, 2024
Dear Parent,
This can be a time of year when our kids get distraught. First of all, the season is full of big sights, loud sounds, and party activities, the likes of which will not be seen again until next year at this same time. The overstimulation of the senses alone is enough to push the most secure over their emotional edge.
Some of our kids have felt memories, if not actual ones, of holidays past with various families that they belonged to before they came home forever to us. Whether these feelings are good, mixed, sad, or bad, the result is often oscillating dysregulation.
Those laboriously decorated cookies could stimulate an outburst. The traffic jams, bustle, and twinkling lights can bring back chaotic feelings of other bright lights and sirens from scary events and tragedies of long ago. The experience of this time of year might be melded with fear, excitement, destruction, drunkenness, fights, and delights--a collage of ghosts in the twinkle of a holiday ornament, a scary jack-o-lantern, or candle flicker in a window.
Recipe for Less Distress:
Mix frequent periods of down regulation between all the excitement starting in October and ending well into the New Year.
20 minutes of crash and bump, trampoline, burpees, exercise circuit in the backyard.
15 minutes of dramatic dancing to Mozart.
10 minutes of movement with GoNoodle.
5 minutes of slow stretching or kid yoga on Youtube.
10 minutes of reading.
1 minute of mindful breathing every hour or two.
2 minutes of shaking like a ragdoll while saying "VOOOOOOOO."
Word to the wiser. You know your child best and there are no rules about how you handle the upcoming Halloween thing. If s/he has the ability to have a piece of candy every now and again, then save the candy. If s/he has compulsive food behavior, then sorting through the pile of candy for 10 best pieces and disposing of the rest may be just right. Remember that moderation is good for our children, too. When they don't get to have sugar often, they seek it and sneak it all the time.
Cook up some regulation soup to take the chill off.
Love matters,
Ce
P.S. You are invited, if you haven't watched it, to register here for my FREE Masterclass on Complex Developmental Trauma.
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