It's important for children to know that their parents aren't perfect and model life skills and what it means to have high emotional intelligence but with when DD is having her moments or moments that go on for the whole day, she is mostly testing me to see if she can affect me in any way. When she sees that it's not working, she stops eventually. When I am less than perfectly calm, she keeps on pushing. If I tell her gently that I am beginning to feel frustrated because she is doing x instead of doing y, she goes and does x 10 times or if she knows she couldn't do it 10 more times then she does it 10 times worse) just to see what I'd do or say. If I start explaining then she starts arguing. If I tell her I need a few minutes to gather my thoughts, she sees it as a rejection then starts really misbehaving.
Raising a child who is highly manipulative and defiant by nature has seriously tested my limits and skills.
As a last resort, I checked out a book on applying DBT to parenting a child with intense emotions. Will report back on how that goes.
Last edited by Mana; 08/21/13 11:39 PM.
