What does the healthy expression of emotions look like?

Healthy Expression

Not only were kids in my generation made to keep their behavior in check (unlike today), they were made to keep their emotions in check as well! Popular psychologists might call this repression, but there is a difference between getting something off your chest and the way you get it off your chest. True to the times, the song “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” was first heard in 1934. It not only urged good behavior and warned against bad, but it also warned against unmerited crying and pouting about things also.

Putting limits on how our kids express their emotions is healthy! It is not repression, it is good old-fashioned self-restraint. Having emotionally healthy kids means teaching them how to control their emotions.

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