Most, if not all, parents would agree that parenting is not easy. We often learn how to be a parent from how we were raised by our parents/caregivers, what we saw on television, and lastly, the wanted or unwanted tips and advice from others. Considering our regular parental responsibilities to clothe, feed, house, and raise children to become adults who are independent, responsible, thoughtful etc., it can be overwhelming when you must manage additional responsibilities, such as navigating through anger, on top of your already lengthy list of “to-dos”.
Parents have a significant amount of influence on their children; however, there are many additional influences that also exist, which parents of earlier years did not have to compete with. Our children do not always behave the way we want and this can leave us feeling guilty, frustrated and doubting our abilities. We may end up impatient and angry with our children and the process of raising them. These are natural feelings. It is important for us to remember that as parents, we cannot control our children; however, we can strongly influence them.
If you are a parent raising an angry child or a parent who gets angry with your child often, you have the task of learning how to manage your own anger in order to influence and help your children mange theirs.
You are not alone in this parenting challenge. We all get angry at times, with our children and others. You will meet parents in this course who, just like yourself, have trouble dealing with their anger towards their children and their children’s anger toward them. With the strategies and information in this course, you will better understand anger, yourself, your child(ren) and you will learn some practical ways of addressing anger with your family. Children are responsible for their behaviours and we as parents are responsible to help our children learn how to make choices that help them cope with their anger aid in their development.