Calming the Anxious Child | How to Support Your Child’s Nervous System Without Pressure

Parenting an anxious child can feel exhausting, confusing, and emotionally draining, especially when traditional advice tells you to “just reassure them” or “help them be more confident.”

In this episode of The Parent Thing, Tarryn dives deep into what childhood anxiety really is and why it’s not a behavior problem, a parenting failure, or something that can be talked away with logic.

You’ll learn how anxiety lives in the nervous system, why children lose access to skills when they feel unsafe, and how co-regulation- not correction- is the foundation for helping anxious kids find calm.

This episode is for parents who:

Are raising an anxious, sensitive, or highly reactive child

Feel like they’re constantly soothing worries, fears, or meltdowns

Want to understand anxiety through a brain- and body-based lens

Are tired of advice that doesn’t actually work in real life

In this episode, you’ll learn:

What anxiety looks like in children (and why it often shows up as anger or control)

Why logic, reassurance, and “you’re fine” don’t calm an anxious nervous system

How your child borrows your nervous system for regulation

What co-regulation really means and how to practice it daily

Body-based tools that help calm anxiety more effectively than words

What to say (and what to stop saying) when your child is anxious

Why calming anxiety is a long game, not a one-time fix

This conversation will help you shift from trying to fix your child’s anxiety to understanding it, and supporting their nervous system in a way that creates lasting emotional safety.

If this episode resonated with you, I’d love to hear from you.

💌 Email me at [email protected] and tell me:

What part of this episode hit home

What you’re currently struggling with in your parenting

Let's schedule a free 30 minute connect call so that I can support you.

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