Starts October 20th And Doesn't End Until January 2nd

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 Christmas 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 or candle flicker. 

Recipe for Less Distress:

Mix frequent periods of down regulation between all the excitement starting in October and ending well into the New Year.  

15 minutes of listening to Mozart with earbuds.

5 minutes of slow stretching.

10 minutes of quiet reading.

1 minute of mindful breathing every hour or two.

Cook up some regulation soup to take the chill off.

Love matters,

Ce

P.S. Check out the Love Matters Parenting Society membership for more support.