It isn’t hard to raise an emotionally aware child, yet so many find barriers to doing so. I welcome Dr. Sarah Aboudara who is a school psychologist and licensed clinical psychologist to talk about raising an emotional aware child. We discuss:

• What it means to raise an emotionally aware child
• Why parents struggle with this
• Steps to creating emotional awareness for our infants and beyond

00;00;01;00 – 00;00;16;08

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

But I think it’s really important from a young age to start to kind of model how to express your emotions verbally as well to your children. So you know, I spend a lot of time if I’m frustrated or angry or upset. Like I say it out loud, I let my girls hear it.

 

00;00;16;10 – 00;00;40;02

Dr. Mona

Hey everyone, welcome back to the PedsDocTalk podcast. This podcast continues to grow because of you and your reviews, so thank you for tuning in and being here today. I’m so excited to welcome on the episode today, Doctor Sarah Aboudara, who is a school psychologist and licensed clinical psychologist. And we’re talking about how to raise an emotionally aware child.

 

00;00;40;02 – 00;00;42;15

Dr. Mona

Thank you so much for joining me today, Sarah.

 

00;00;42;17 – 00;00;44;24

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

Of course. Thank you so much for having me.

 

00;00;44;26 – 00;00;51;25

Dr. Mona

Well, tell me more about yourself and why this topic in particular is so important to you, or you’re just so passionate about talking about this?

 

00;00;51;28 – 00;01;28;29

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

So, I work full time right now in an elementary school with children ranging from kindergarten through third grade, and I also do some private clinical work in the evenings with, children. On top of that, I’m also simultaneously raising my two girls, my three year old and my newly one year old. And I have had a very interesting time kind of finding this balance between the work I do professionally and carrying that over into raising my children, and really trying to utilize the things I know as a professional to help me be a better mom.

 

00;01;28;29 – 00;01;43;27

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And it has made me want to be able to help educate other moms to utilize some of the strategies and stuff that I just happened to know because of my kind of professional background and how that’s helped me, and then sometimes also hindered me, in my parenting as well.

 

00;01;44;00 – 00;02;03;29

Dr. Mona

I love it. So you’re looking at that self insight which I also love to do. Also, it’s very important work to take what we know from being a pediatrician and being a psychologist and implement it with our kids. So I love that. I’m so excited that you’re here. And when we talk about raising an emotionally aware child, what does that mean to you?

 

00;02;03;29 – 00;02;10;20

Dr. Mona

You know, why is that important? I think sometimes people may not understand what that terminology means and what we’re trying to get our children to understand.

 

00;02;10;23 – 00;02;41;03

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

Of course. So there’s a whole range of emotions that we experience. And as we grow from infancy through adulthood, those kind of our emotional vocabulary, the emotions we actually experience grow and transform. And one thing I’ve learned in doing my private work and schoolwork is that sometimes kids just truly lack the, words to utilize to articulate how they’re feeling, because they’ve just never really been taught to say, I feel sad, I feel mad, I’m frustrated.

 

00;02;41;05 – 00;03;06;10

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

They have these body sensations and they kind of act out these emotions and feelings, but they don’t know how to verbalize them. And at a very small age, that’s completely developmentally appropriate to lack the verbal skills to articulate your emotions and instead just act them out behaviorally. But I think it’s really important from a young age to start to kind of model how to express your emotions verbally as well to your children.

 

00;03;06;10 – 00;03;26;02

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

So, you know, I spend a lot of time if I’m frustrated or angry or upset. Like I say it out loud, I let my girls hear it. And I think that just giving them that education and that insight, teaching them about feelings, my three year old knows a whole bunch of feeling words already. She can point to pictures, you know, in a storybook and say that person is sad.

 

00;03;26;02 – 00;03;42;01

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

That person is mad based on, you know, facial expressions she’s seeing and that ability to just give her, that language to represent how she’s feeling has been helpful sometimes in working through kind of big emotions with her and situations.

 

00;03;42;03 – 00;03;57;08

Dr. Mona

Yeah. Because if they’ve never experienced that feeling before or unsure how to process it, how will they ever really learn? So how young did you start doing this with your children? I know you said you have a one and a three year old. Yeah. How early did you start doing the books and the explanation of the emotions with your girls?

 

00;03;57;10 – 00;04;24;17

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

Honestly, probably right from the get go. As soon as I started reading, I would point out what somebody was feeling. In a story, obviously, you know, being a psychologist. Yes. You have a big library of, you know, feelings, books. So I like to read them from a very young age. My oldest, my three year old, was very early in her verbal skills, like talking before one, like she talks like she’s like 16 now.

 

00;04;24;19 – 00;04;40;16

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

She’s very advanced in her verbal skills. So I was able to do a lot of this probably a little earlier than like the norm in terms of getting her to be able to verbalize back to me. But just very from the beginning, it became part of our conversation, part of our, you know, day to day talk.

 

00;04;40;16 – 00;04;51;28

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

We read before bed every night. And when it was now applicable, I would throw in a feelings word or, you know, say this character sad or what makes you feel sad, that kind of stuff.

 

00;04;52;00 – 00;05;09;20

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And I think a lot of times parents feel that they have to wait till their child is more receptive in language. Right? I know you said you had a child who was speaking more, but some parents feel like, well, no, they’re not really talking much, so they must not understand me. And I completely agree that your children understand you even before they become fully verbal, quote unquote.

 

00;05;09;20 – 00;05;28;29

Dr. Mona

Right. There are nonverbal cues. Our facial expressions are obviously something that they’re really learning about from the beginning. So I did the same thing with our Ryan. I think it’s so special and so important from infancy and beyond. What else can parents do to kind of foster this sort of education or awareness of raising an emotionally aware child?

 

00;05;28;29 – 00;05;37;12

Dr. Mona

Besides, obviously just speaking about the emotions and pointing out different emotions to the child in books and, you know, other people’s emotions as well.

 

00;05;37;14 – 00;05;57;25

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

You know, I think those are two of the really important things to be done. But another strategy I use, it’s kind of pointing out in the moment what emotion I think my daughter’s feeling and in particular my three year old, because, you know, my one year old is only one, but with my three year old, like, if she’s frustrated, if she’s stopping her foot, if she’s crying, I’ll say, you know, you seem very sad right now.

 

00;05;57;25 – 00;06;27;10

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

You seem very frustrated right now. Are you feeling angry right now? You know, I can tell you’re angry right now. What can we do to feel better? And sometimes that works great. Sometimes that just escalates the situation. And sometimes I’m escalated myself and not able to do that because I’m human as well. And, you know, sometimes I feel like I get stuck in the situation where because of my professional background, I feel as though I should be able to handle challenging situations with her and my children better than I do.

 

00;06;27;10 – 00;06;47;16

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

But I still absolutely have moments where I lose my patience and don’t handle it in the way that is, I think, best suited to foster that emotional awareness. But when I remember too, that’s another big strategy I utilize is to just give words to the big emotion that I’m watching my daughter experience in the moment.

 

00;06;47;18 – 00;07;14;05

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And like you said, that you’re experiencing too. You mentioned that earlier as well. Like, we’re not perfect beings. We’re obviously always evolving and learning about the things that trigger us or the things that stress us out, or you may not even realize it. And all of a sudden you’re like feeling frustrated as an adult, too. So like you said, you’re verbalizing all of those moments in front of your child too, rather than dismissing it and saying, well, no, mommy is always, quote unquote strong one like she never gets vulnerable, she never cries.

 

00;07;14;05 – 00;07;32;23

Dr. Mona

And I do think there’s a balance there. Do you ever, I guess maybe as a psychologist. Two do you ever, like, worry or overthink the balance that you’re trying to create? I don’t like meaning in terms of, like, being too vulnerable in front of your children. Do you feel like there’s a balance that parents should be looking out for in terms of giving them too much emotional awareness for a child?

 

00;07;32;25 – 00;07;55;00

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

I really don’t. You know, I think that as more like natural as this is what’s important. I think that, you know, trying to hide and hinder and hold in your emotions is only going to make things like more challenging for you as a parent to do. The kids need to see every big like disagreement with your husband or frustration in other senses of the world that you’re experiencing.

 

00;07;55;06 – 00;08;20;03

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

Do you need to explain to them every emotion you’re having about things like that they don’t need to know about know. But if you’re feeling frustrated in the moment, if they catch you crying, if they catch you losing your patience, I think the more they can see that and then see you work through it, the better. I find that I have so much mom guilt when I lose my cool with my three year old, and what I try and remind myself is the important piece is kind of the after.

 

00;08;20;05 – 00;08;37;07

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And you know, after I live lost my cool, after I’ve screamed and she’s cried, whatever. Then like at bedtime, being able to sit down and like reflect on that and say, mommy was really upset and frustrated, even grown to get angry. I’m sorry I yelled at you. You know I always love you no matter what. How did it make you feel when mommy did that?

 

00;08;37;10 – 00;08;56;19

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

That kind of stuff? And I really try and include that in part of our daily life as well. It helps me feel better as well. But I can see it really helps educate her and understand that we’re human, you know, grownups have emotions too, and that’s all. Okay. And I think that that’s really important to show our kids.

 

00;08;56;21 – 00;09;02;04

Dr. Mona

I love those debriefing sessions. Do you find that you tend to do them more at bedtime? Is that your kind of go to?

 

00;09;02;06 – 00;09;19;07

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

That’s our go to. And, with our bedtime, we have this part of our routine too, where we go through a couple feelings. So before bed every night, I say, you know, what made you feel happy today? What made you feel loved today? What made you feel sad today? What made you feel angry today? She loves doing it.

 

00;09;19;07 – 00;09;36;18

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And as I said, my my three year old super verbal. So sometimes it takes forever and I don’t do it because I just need her to go to bed. And then she’s like, mom, we didn’t do our feelings and she gets upset about it. But I try and incorporate, yes, for those debriefing sessions before bed. And I love them.

 

00;09;36;18 – 00;09;51;07

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And I look because I think it just, you know, it resets, right? She’s mad the next time I see her. I know we’ve had this talk and I’m like, you know, we’re both happy to see each other again and I can go to bed with a little bit less mom guilt from the day, which is, you know, important for us as well.

 

00;09;51;10 – 00;10;07;11

Dr. Mona

Oh, yeah. And, you know, think about this for like, any relationship, right. Like if you have an argument or discussion, if you will, with your partner or a friend, like I always say, like you never want to go to bed with ill feelings, you want to talk it out and you want to just say hello. Like earlier today, I just give an example with like a partner, right?

 

00;10;07;12 – 00;10;26;13

Dr. Mona

Like earlier today, like I was very frustrated and you asked me to do X, Y and Z and I got upset and it really just can help. And that day and obviously find a positive from that day and move forward. And so I love that something that we, we like to do in our house as well. And I ask about when you do it because I think, you know, bedtime routine is a natural time to do it.

 

00;10;26;13 – 00;10;46;28

Dr. Mona

You know, it’s that wind down. It’s that intimate time where you’re usually reading, hopefully, maybe. You know, I love reading, for bedtime. I think it’s part of a great routine, but it’s just that very nice wind down to just really reflect on the day, whether it was something that scared them or something positive. Like you said, it’s not just all negative quote unquote emotions or scary emotions.

 

00;10;46;28 – 00;10;49;26

Dr. Mona

It’s all the feelings we have, which is so wonderful.

 

00;10;49;28 – 00;11;12;01

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And I think that’s important too, because I think a lot of times when we think about, like teaching our kid feelings, we think about like those more negative emotions, but like having your kid express when they’re happy and loved and excited are all just as important to give them verbalization for those as well, especially when they’re little. Because a lot of times you’ll see that excited, really happy emotion coming out.

 

00;11;12;01 – 00;11;27;06

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

Almost like as a dysregulated, like crazy, silly like all over the place behavior. But that’s really just because they’re feeling so happy or so excited and being able to teach them to verbalize that and understand that emotion is super important as well.

 

00;11;27;09 – 00;11;39;28

Dr. Mona

Is there a moment you can think of as a mom for either of your daughters that you were like, wow, I am raising an emotionally aware child. Like there was that, you know, light bulb moment or that time where you’re like, this is something really cool that this is working like what we’re talking about.

 

00;11;40;00 – 00;12;06;13

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

Yes, actually, there’s a kind of little funny anecdotal story and where I really just it all came into place that she’s really listening. She’s understanding. And it was not actually how I thought it was going to come. But, you know, obviously during the pandemic, I did a lot of virtual teaching, virtual, clinical work. Our school, the, you know, the year we came back from Covid, we were virtual completely until March.

 

00;12;06;13 – 00;12;29;02

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

So I was doing a lot of lessons to the kids I work with via zoom and, you know, childcare was on and off. So she was around here and there and she was over here and probably more than I really thought she was. And one of the curriculums I use in the school I work with, it’s called the Zones of Regulation, and it teaches children to clump different emotions into four different color zones.

 

00;12;29;02 – 00;12;47;08

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

So like our kind of sad feelings go in the blue zone, are happy feelings go in the green zone are scared and anxious feelings go in the yellow zone and our angry, frustrated feelings go in the red zone. So I was doing this check in with all the kids I was meeting with and I always say, what zone are you in today?

 

00;12;47;13 – 00;13;02;13

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

Now I start our conversations and then ask them why and I give an example to. So I got to kind of a whole day of that. And then at dinner time we were sitting down for family dinner and just talking. And my three year old Madeline looks up to me and goes, mama, what color are you right now?

 

00;13;02;16 – 00;13;23;15

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

Oh, and I was like, I couldn’t kind of quite exactly in the moment figure out what she’s talking about. And then it dawned on me she was, you know, listening to my zones lessons, taking it all in, and then wanting to, like, ask me how I was feeling. Basically. And I was able to answer her. And then she asked my husband, she pretended to ask my infant at the time, who obviously wasn’t able to answer.

 

00;13;23;18 – 00;13;46;14

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And, so utilize that, you know, throughout the day. Sometimes she’ll say what color she is and things like that. And I had used some of that language with her separately, but it’s really just goes to show you, like how she’s listening, even when you think they’re not to and taking it in. And those wheels were turning and she was then able to like use it in the complete appropriate context.

 

00;13;46;14 – 00;13;52;21

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And now it’s something we talk about all the time together. So that was just a cool little moment to see with her.

 

00;13;52;23 – 00;14;15;19

Dr. Mona

Oh, it’s so great. And, you know, that really does blossom in these children, especially the toddler ages, you know, when they are verbalizing and even just their facial expression will change if you’re upset or happy. Like, as we know that they mirror a lot of our emotions as well, right? So a lot of children, if you’re crying or sad, they may look curious or cry also, or, you know, be very just interested in the human emotion and our faces and the words that we say.

 

00;14;15;25 – 00;14;33;02

Dr. Mona

Have you seen the movie Inside Out from Disney? Oh, I’m sorry, I was gonna sound like most I hope that every child psychologist or anyone who works with children or just any psychologist would watch it. It’s such a great movie for anyone who has not seen it. It’s a Disney movie. I, I love it because they have the different emotions as characters.

 

00;14;33;02 – 00;14;44;24

Dr. Mona

So if you have not seen it, it really pair well with this episode because it really teaches kids about the very human emotions we all have. And I love that example that you gave. That’s definitely her listening when you don’t even realize it.

 

00;14;44;29 – 00;14;46;25

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

Exactly. Yes, absolutely.

 

00;14;46;27 – 00;15;07;21

Dr. Mona

And what would you say then in your experience? Obviously, I know you work with your own practice, but also in a school setting. What would you say are some barriers you see in parents? You know, when they’re trying to raise emotionally aware children? Barriers include missteps. I don’t like calling them mistakes because mistakes has like a negative connotation, but missteps like maybe something that could be done differently.

 

00;15;07;21 – 00;15;12;11

Dr. Mona

When we approach feelings, the discussion about feelings and emotions with children.

 

00;15;12;14 – 00;15;39;25

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

I think honestly, one of the biggest barriers is, you know, some of the parents that I come across are, not super emotionally aware of themselves. Right? They also don’t have the language to utilize to express their emotions. They were never really taught it. Maybe growing up they were taught, you know, emotions are bad. We don’t talk about our emotions, you know, not intentionally passing that down to their children, but not really having their own skill set in terms of how to verbalize their own emotions and then model that in turn for their children.

 

00;15;39;25 – 00;16;04;19

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

So I think parents being able to do some of their own work in their own education and coming to terms with their own emotions and accepting their own feelings, then in turn can help, you know, their children become more emotionally where. And I think also this kind of I don’t want to say stigma but like kind of bad feelings, bad associations with negative emotions when there’s a tendency to kind of shut them down.

 

00;16;04;19 – 00;16;42;06

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

If the kid is getting really angry and aggressive, like using punishment for that, and getting angry back with them and that kind of stuff, which happens because you’re a parent and you’re human and, you know, if they’re dysregulated to get you dysregulated, you’re not always going to react perfectly. But I think that’s a big one. I see is where when kids are having these big emotions and parents and teachers interpret these negative emotions as, you know, intentional, disrespectful behavior, whereas really it’s just a sign of communication and that the kids are just trying to express a feeling to you and they don’t know how.

 

00;16;42;08 – 00;16;54;29

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And switching that mindset, which is really hard to do, can really help the way you then react to these emotions, which then in turn helps their emotional expression of these more challenging emotions.

 

00;16;55;01 – 00;17;13;18

Dr. Mona

Oh, this is so important. And this is all stuff that’s not only just important for your younger child, but can also be strategies for, you know, teenagers and adults. We’ve talked about that, right? Like how we communicate with each other and just allowing each other to feel seen and verbalizing and just showing that you’re there and that, we are human.

 

00;17;13;18 – 00;17;32;12

Dr. Mona

And I think one of the biggest misconceptions I see is that people feel so guilty when they get angry, like, you know, just so you’re trying to do this work of like being a more present calm, you know, non reactive, more responsive as a parent. Right? And then you get mad, you get upset, you yell. And there’s so much guilt and shame that people feel and they put on top of themselves.

 

00;17;32;16 – 00;17;58;20

Dr. Mona

And I always have to say like what we said I’ve done it, you’ve done it. You know, we’ve had moments where we’re vulnerable and we don’t mean to yell, and we do, and we’re just so frustrated. And it’s a reality in the work that I think is really important is making that okay, that every time I do have an episode where I do yell at my son, I think about what was happening in that day that got me to that point that I lost my cool because it obviously wasn’t only just my son doing what he was doing.

 

00;17;58;20 – 00;18;14;13

Dr. Mona

There was probably I was overscheduled. I was, you know, I didn’t take time for me, whatever it may be like, looking at the big picture so that we can work on ourselves to maybe it won’t keep happening all the time, like you’re going to have one offs, you’re going to have days that are worse than others. But yes, I agree with you.

 

00;18;14;13 – 00;18;30;28

Dr. Mona

It’s when the common pattern is happening where you have not done the work to look at your emotions, you’re not comfortable with your emotions. And a lot of that is cyclical parenting, right? Like a lot of us grew up in households where, like you said, those negative emotions were just not okay. Like you can’t cry. Especially for boys.

 

00;18;30;28 – 00;18;47;23

Dr. Mona

Boys don’t cry. Why are you crying? Be tough, be tough. You have to be strong. I feel like the whole society and parents in the back in the day especially, and even some parents now, they’re just trying to push people through their emotions quicker, you know, like they’re not allowing even a child like, okay, just get over it.

 

00;18;47;23 – 00;19;08;28

Dr. Mona

Like it’s not a big deal. Like, no, apparently it is a big deal to this child. We’re not saying to like, nurse the wound forever, but just be with them as they kind of figure out those emotions and what you do and I do as well. Those evening chats are like so vital or in the drive home or drive to school, like really talking about the feelings so that they understand that, hey, I had a moment.

 

00;19;08;28 – 00;19;21;10

Dr. Mona

I’m feeling this way now. I understand the emotion. So then I can learn how to cope because I think people forget there’s you have emotions, but then you also have to learn healthy coping skills to go with those emotions as well, right?

 

00;19;21;12 – 00;19;43;09

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

Yes. And that’s another piece of what I also kind of try and do with my daughters is teach the other side of it, too. Okay. We have this big emotion now. What do we do with it? Yeah. You know, we do a lot of deep breathing. I have a lot of books about teaching kids breathing exercises. Sesame Street has, like an awesome collaboration where they have all these mindfulness videos on YouTube and books.

 

00;19;43;11 – 00;20;04;27

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

That we read, just educating kids about emotions. And then secondly, what to do when they have emotions. We have like a little calm down corner in our house with the beanbag chair where it has some like visual things and some tactile stuff like stress balls and those poppers that, you know, she can utilize to help de-escalate those big emotions too, because that’s the second step.

 

00;20;04;27 – 00;20;11;28

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

One. Yeah. Understanding, verbalizing and then how to make yourself feel better. It’s important to teach them that as well.

 

00;20;12;00 – 00;20;34;07

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And I think like you would agree that the first step is recognizing the emotions. And then as you’re doing that simultaneously, you can also teach them the processing on how to cope with it. But both equal parts of the puzzle that we can’t forget. Oh, this was such a great conversation because I love talking about emotions. I love talking about the human experience and obviously how this all relates to parenting.

 

00;20;34;13 – 00;20;37;25

Dr. Mona

What would be your final take home for everyone listening today?

 

00;20;37;27 – 00;21;05;03

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

I think just, you know, primarily give yourself grace because you’re a parent. You are going to make mistakes. You’re not going to be perfect. And if your kids are experiencing big emotions and you’re having difficulty handling them, that’s okay. I think that, you know, doing the work to understand your own emotions and then starting to slowly be able to incorporate that into the day to day dialog with your children is what’s important.

 

00;21;05;03 – 00;21;30;26

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And using those evening bedtime chats to debrief the day, being able to talk these things through with them and just admit that all emotions are okay, and know it’s a process. It’s not going to happen overnight. Some kids will take to it faster than others, but I think it’s just an important piece that we should be including, you know, we go to our pediatrician all the time and we keep track of our kids physical health.

 

00;21;30;26 – 00;21;41;22

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

But it’s so important to start reading that, you know, that mental health from such a young age as well, and being able to just support them as they grow and develop through it, because it’s a big process.

 

00;21;41;24 – 00;22;03;24

Dr. Mona

And I love how you mentioned the every child will have a different sort of speed of understanding the emotions and just innately right, just by temperament. Some children are quote unquote, more in tune with their emotions, more sensitive. It’s just who we are, you know? But every parent, regardless of how that child looks, should approach their kids with the sort of, I think, emotional awareness parenting that we’re describing here.

 

00;22;03;27 – 00;22;19;27

Dr. Mona

Oh, such a great conversation. And, you know, at the end of every episode, I know you already mentioned one thing, you know, with your story of your older daughter when she was watching you do the lectures and the color of the emotions, what would you say is your parenting high and low with maybe either one of your daughters or both?

 

00;22;20;02 – 00;22;32;17

Dr. Mona

I like to do this because it’s just so nice to show our guests who do have children, the relate ability that, you know, there’s good moments, there’s not so great moments. So if you want to share, maybe a low and a high that’s kind of happened in your parenting journey so far.

 

00;22;32;19 – 00;22;55;29

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

I think with the high, I’d have to say definitely at this point with having two girls and my youngest growing far too quickly is seeing the relationship between them blossom and, you know, catching those moments. Last night there was a silly moment where my older one was running around the house and my one year old was crawling and kind of chasing her around the house.

 

00;22;56;01 – 00;23;20;09

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And they were both laughing. And just watching that from a distance made me like, take a moment to be like, I’m doing something right, because these are happy, well-adjusted kids and they’re interacting with each other well, and it’s awesome. And seeing my older child be able to kind of talk to my younger child in ways I talk to her, you know, reassuring her it’s okay to be sad and giving her that kind of positive praise that I know I’ve said to her.

 

00;23;20;10 – 00;23;43;20

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

So seeing it being carried over clearly, she’s listening to me because now she’s using those same words and strategies with her younger sister. So I really think for me right now, the stage I’m in, because there also are a lot of challenges in terms of sharing, which I guess I can use as my load too. But seeing them blossom and their relationship grow, and I’m so excited for what the future holds for the two of them.

 

00;23;43;23 – 00;24;15;19

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And with the low would probably be kind of right on par with that as well. You know, having my oldest was about just shy of two and a half when I had my younger daughter, Ellie. And I think navigating splitting time and feeling like I had enough time to give to meet the needs of both my kids as well as myself as well as my husband, was super challenging for me as my younger becomes more mobile and is getting into Madeline’s toys, navigating this whole sharing and fighting meeting, is really challenging for me.

 

00;24;15;21 – 00;24;31;05

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And trying to figure out how to help them through that. I think really is kind of my low and frustration right now. And it’s where I’ll lose my patience a lot of times with my older child, because obviously the one year old can’t help the things she’s doing, and I. And then I have to take a step back and remember she is only three.

 

00;24;31;05 – 00;24;47;21

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

And it’s okay that sharing is hard for her and that kind of stuff, but I think that, you know, my high and low are both seeing both the highs of my girls blossoming together and the lows of the challenges of raising two daughters who are strong willed and all that fun stuff that comes along with it.

 

00;24;47;24 – 00;25;08;05

Dr. Mona

Thank you so much. I completely agree with that. I love when my guests share that, because it’s just so nice to hear the ups and downs that we all go through. As parents, as psychologists, as pediatricians, as professionals, and just as moms in general. So I really appreciate you sharing that and all of the information today on raising an emotionally aware child.

 

00;25;08;05 – 00;25;09;10

Dr. Mona

So thank you again.

 

00;25;09;13 – 00;25;10;23

Dr. Sarah Aboudara

Thank you so much for having me, doctor.

 

00;25;10;23 – 00;25;26;25

Dr. Mona

Mona, thank you for tuning in for this week’s episode. As always, please leave a review, share this episode with a friend, share it on your social media. Make sure to follow me at PedsDocTalk on Instagram and subscribe to my YouTube channel, PedsDocTalk TV. We’ll talk to you soon.