We can train our reactions

PICTURE this scenario: you’re running late for school drop-offs, breakfasts have not been finished and because lunch was not packed the night before you’re desperately throwing packaged goods into your child’s lunch box. You’re too desperate to feel any guilt.

Then your child, who is still in their pyjamas, spills their entire cup of milk/juice on the floor.

Right about now you may feel like a kettle at boiling point. Whatever your typical reaction is when you reach that point – yell, cry, laugh, turn to chocolate, or hopefully not physically lash out – you’d be pretty close to indulging in it by about now.

Life gets hard and we react. We all do it. We’re human.

A driver tailgates you or gives you the finger, you get overcharged or sold a faulty product, or like the above scenario, your kid makes a big mess right at the wrong time.

It is in these moments when that switch is flicked that we are most tested.

The question is, how to halt that well-trodden neural pathway that results in a reaction that could hurt you or your family? Surely awareness is a first step.

Parenting experts say during a child’s worst moments, such as the tantrums or poor behaviour, is the best opportunity to educate. To not overreact to our child but to calmly look at the issue and work together to solve it.

As adults, maybe we could start to look at our reactions in a similar way.