Episode #20 Emotional Childhood/Emotional Adulthood

It can be so easy to act like a child by yelling, blaming others or playing the victim. But owning our emotions creates powerful parenting. Emotional adulthood might be the most powerful tool for getting along with other people-- especially our teens. Simply put, emotional adulthood means taking responsibility for your own thoughts and feelings rather than blaming other people. Emotional adults don't get offended easily (or at all!) and they recognize that when people hurt us they usually act out of ignorance, not cruelty.

It sounds so basic, but once you start thinking about emotional adulthood, you'll recognize many situations where adults act like emotional children-- throwing tantrums, getting offended at small slights and blaming others for their feelings. 

On the flip side, we can't expect full emotional adulthood from our teens. But we can teach emotional adulthood by modeling it ourselves.