‘Feel no obligation to continue to keep her in the house if she’s that obnoxious.’
I love listening to David Coleman’s parenting slot on Today with Sean O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio 1. It comforts me to know that I’m not the only one who might describe their child as “the exorcist on steroids”, as one frazzled texter did this morning.
In this case, the head-spinning Regan MacNeil (for those of you who haven’t seen The Exorcist, Regan was the crazed child, possessed by the devil) was a 19-year-old woman.
David’s advice?
“Put her out of the house. She’s 19, send her off to work; send her off to college… She’s now an adult and if she’s going to behave like this at home then she’s not welcome. If she wants to behave like a normal human being at home, she’s very welcome. Feel no obligation to continue to keep her in the house if she’s that obnoxious.”
That’s right folks; even child psychologists can be tough. This morning’s item focussed on anger: from toddler frustration to parental resentment.
So, asked Sean, as if he had been a fly on my kitchen wall at breakfast time this morning:
“How do you deal with a three-year-old who’s having a melt-down because they wanted the blue spoon and you gave them the yellow spoon?”
David?
“The key thing is to realise that once their adrenaline levels are up, which they will be if they’re having a proper melt-down, there’s little point in trying to do anything that approaches rationality.”
David’s nurturing but no-nonsense approach to parenting has made him a hit with RTÉ Radio 1 listeners and, as Sean said, when he’s in studio the questions always outweigh the time available to answer them.
You can listen back to the full item to hear more of David’s advice on dealing with anger issues in children and teens, as well as handling that eternal taboo, parental anger.
