Feelings

If you can’t put your own feelings into words, how are you supposed to help your child put theirs into words? This was a question I read a few years ago and it made a lot of sense to me. At the time one of my little guys, who was very emotional, seemed to express most of his emotions with anger. He was always hitting or yelling. Whether he was sad, mad, scared or frustrated, it didn’t seem to matter, everything was expressed in the same way, like he was furious.

When I read this I started to make a list of my own emotions and practiced putting them into words. This helped a lot when I was trying to teach my little guy to use his words. I would help him calm down and ask him what his feelings were and it was nice be able to give him a list of different feeling and explain them to him.

Now, a few years later, he is still very emotional but he is also very good at telling you exactly what he feels. Though, if you are his little sister and you upset him, how he feels will most likely get yelled at you. We are all a work in progress.

He may be very emotional but with that comes a gigantic heart; a heart that seems to feel things more fully than others and a heart that loves big. He is a huge blessing and cherished in my heart. God has used him to teach me patients and Proverbs 15:1, “a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

I came across this feelings wheel years later and thought how nice it would have been to have then, so I thought I would share it. I am sure that I am not the only mother that needs to learn to put emotions into words to help their little ones.