#25 Helping Young Children Navigate Emotions with Sue Groner

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As an experienced mother, Sue Groner knows how stressful and overwhelming parenting can be at times. She founded The Parenting Mentor to provide an ally for parents in their quest to raise confident and resilient children. Sue is the author of Parenting: 101 Ways to Rock Your World. Simple Strategies for Parenting with Sanity and Joy and is a certified Positive Discipline parent educator. Sue is also the creator of the CLEARR™ method of parenting, developed through years of trial (and her fair share of errors!) with her own family. CLEARR™ adheres to the belief that parenting strategies should be grounded in six important pillars: Communication, Love, Empathy, Awareness, Rules, and Respect. This has become the cornerstone of her practice as The Parenting Mentor. A graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a former advertising executive, Sue resides in New York City and Bedford, NY with her husband, two children (when they are not away at school) and their rescue dog. She is available for private, group, and virtual mentorship sessions nationwide for individuals as well as corporations. In this lively interview, Marla and Sue discuss creative strategies for families with children to find opportunities for personal growth while sheltering in place.

“We all can handle one random act of kindness a day.”
— Sue Groner, on modeling kindness for children
“It really does make a different for your mindset.”
— Sue Groner, on practicing gratitude

NOTES

  • When talking to children about difficult subjects, it’s important to know what your child is capable of dealing with. Age-related rules do not always apply.

  • Though the maternal instinct is to “fix” a child’s negative emotions, doing this can deny the child an opportunity to build emotional resilience.

  • Sue explains the importance of validating a child’s negative emotions and the potential consequence of not doing so.

  • She illustrates ways that we can model how we, as adults, deal with our own negative emotions.

  • Other fun tools include the use of expressive “faces” to help a child express how he is feeling.

  • Sue suggests parents use this time to relax their own expectations about what they want to accomplish in order to lighten their own anxiety. Also an opportunity for children to lower their anxiety due to fewer activities and expectations.

  • Sue describes how families can use “jars” for activities they will be able to do later (once the pandemic is over), and activities they can do now.

  • This time is perfect for helping children take on new responsibilities and learn life skills. She uses the “team” metaphor for a way to put a positive spin on household contributions.

  • This is also a time to work with children to explore their senses of taste, smell, etc., all which are mindfulness activities. Sue has some fun suggestions for cooking projects to do as a family.

  • A daily ritual that embraces gratitude is a wonderful family tradition.

  • Click the image below to find out more about Sue’s Book: Parenting: 101 Ways to Rock Your World:

 
 

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