Michael Sorensen

You know, adults need that.

Children need that.

I'm consistently shocked at how well validation works to help, you know, wild children who are just sobbing and screaming because their mom left or their dad left.

Typically, we want to say, oh, it's fine.

She'll be back in an hour.

Don't worry about it.

And the kid just wails even louder.

Right.

But when you can say, oh, gee, it sucks when mom leaves, doesn't it?

Yeah.

You know, she's so good at cuddle, whatever it is.

Right.

But I've heard multiple stories from parents sharing the same thing, where instead of trying to get their kids to quiet down by saying, stop, stop screaming, it's going to be OK when they just validate them and say, yeah, this is hard or this is scary.

Right.

It is.

The kids learn that they're okay.

And they're able to recover and learn to manage their own emotions just as well.

You know, and to anybody who might be skeptical, I say try it.

I think you might be surprised.

because it's a small, simple tweak, but it has a profound impact on your conversations.