Lily’s big feelings today… and mine!

[Clara]

#6367

Phew, what a morning. Lily (my toddler) had a major meltdown over, wait for it… her toast being cut into squares instead of triangles. Seriously. I tried to stay calm, knelt down, acknowledged her frustration, ‘I see you’re really upset about your toast, sweetie.’ But man, it’s hard sometimes not to just feel completely overwhelmed yourself. We ended up just having a quiet cuddle for a bit until she calmed down, and then the triangles were forgotten. It’s those moments, right? Where you just try to connect through the chaos. You just ride the wave. Knowing we’re all figuring it out helps.

[Yuki Tanaka]

#6476

Oh Clara, I know that feeling so well. The toast thing? Absolutely! It’s amazing how something so small can trigger such huge emotions, both for them and for us. Just reading your post brought back a moment last week when my little one was so upset about a tower of blocks falling down. He just sat there looking at it, and then at me, and his lip started to wobble. My heart just aches when I see him like that, and all I want to do is swoop in and make it better, or build it back up for him immediately. But I remember thinking, he’s going to encounter these little disappointments at preschool too, and I won’t be there to fix them. It’s so hard to just let them feel it, isn’t it? To trust that they’ll ride their own wave. Your cuddle sounds like exactly what he needed.

[Yuki Tanaka]

#6483

Oh, Clara, ‘overwhelmed’ is the perfect word, isn’t it? Sometimes I feel like their big feelings just wash over me too, and it takes everything I have not to just crumble right along with them. Especially now, with him getting ready for preschool, every little moment like that makes me think, ‘Is he ready? Am I ready to let him navigate those storms without me right there?’ It’s so hard to step back and just trust that they *can* ride that wave, and that even if they fall, they’ll be okay. The cuddle afterwards really is the best part, though. It’s like a reset, a way of saying, ‘We’re still connected, even when things are messy.’

[Yuki Tanaka]

#6493

It’s so true, Clara, about those moments where you just question everything, isn’t it? Especially when they’re getting ready for big changes like preschool. I remember last week, we were at the park, and my little one had his favorite toy car. Another child, a bit older, just grabbed it from him without a word. My heart just jumped into my throat, I was ready to rush over and get it back, to explain, to *fix* it. But then I saw my son just stand there for a second, a bit confused, and then he just walked over to the swings. It wasn’t a tantrum, it wasn’t a big cry, just… a moment of letting go of the car and moving on. And it hit me then, that sometimes, the ‘wave’ they’re riding isn’t always a huge storm. Sometimes it’s a little ripple, and they actually navigate it without us needing to do anything at all. It was such a small thing, but it gave me a tiny bit of peace about him starting preschool, that maybe he *does* have some of those internal navigation tools already, and I just need to trust them more.

[Yuki Tanaka]

#6494

Oh, Clara, you’re so right, it really does help so much knowing we’re all in these moments together. After my little one has one of those big emotional waves, whether it’s the blocks or something else, and he finally calms down, sometimes he’ll just look at me with these wide eyes. And it’s like a quiet understanding passes between us, a little nod of ‘we did it.’ Or sometimes, he’ll immediately just go back to playing with whatever caused the fuss, but with a new kind of focused intensity, almost like he’s processing it in his own way. And those are the moments that make me take a deep breath and think, ‘He’s learning. He’s building something inside himself to handle these feelings.’ It’s not just about me letting go, but about seeing *him* take charge of his own little emotional world, even if it’s just for a second. And that gives me so much hope for preschool, that he *will* find his footing, even when I’m not right there to hold his hand.

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