text: It's one of those parental triggers which can seem impossibly difficult to deal with because of how quickly it activates our stress response.
  Whining can get your adrenaline pumping, and suddenly your innate ability to cope dwindles with every shrieky demand and objection to your limits and attempts to empathize.
  Add a bit of logic, debate, legitimizing, or trying to rationalize away the hysterics, and you'll drive yourself directly to the Summer Whine Fest. So what do you do?
  When you react to whining with anger or a disconnected sense of firmness, where you demand words and the "big girl voice" or even mimic the behavior back to your child in pursuit of some expected behavioral goal - you increase the tension.
  I know it's unconscious, but it's also counter-productive to raising a thoughtful and self-regulated child.
  If you plead or demand that this - extraordinarily unpleasant - but age-typical emotional expression stop before offering care, attention, or help - one of two things will happen:
  the child will SHUT down emotionally and hold the stress and feelings for diffusing later in another situation, perhaps more aggressively.
  I know you want to stop the whining. In this TEACHable Moments video, I am sharing my top three tips to make sure whining doesn't stop you from being emotionally available for your child.
  After you watch, I'd love to know which tip you are going to try first or maybe you have a gentle suggestion which can help others respond when their kids are whining.
  Labels: conscious parenting, effective communication with kids, how to respond when your kids are whining, parenting tips, stop whining