Emotional Self-Regulation for You and Your Children (and How a Parenting Coach Can Help)

Rebecca Lyddon • October 25, 2021

Empowered parenting is all about reconditioning ourselves away from the power-over or power-under methods of parenting that have been taught for centuries toward a more empowered, peaceful, and connection-based way of parenting.

We are now learning through new developments in neuroscience that children cognitively need empathy, connection, and the allowance of their emotions with non-judgment in order to grow up to be emotionally mature adults.

Holding space and providing this key information to parents is just one of the roles an Empowered Parenting Coach plays in the lives of their clients.

Many parents ask how they can become their child’s emotional coach out of a desire to create a more secure attachment to their child’s emotions. Since children naturally have such big emotions, when we can teach them about their emotions and how to self-regulate, they can feel safer while experiencing big emotions.

The process of unlearning how we've been trained and conditioned for many generations to respond to our children's emotions can be an uncomfortable experience. Learning how to hold the space for our child’s emotions really means stepping back and not controlling the process of how our children express those emotions, which is a big departure from the way most of us were parented.

This does not mean that boundaries are non-existent in this space. It is critical that in these moments, there is no hitting, violence, or actions that go against family values. AND with our boundaries in place, we no longer have to be afraid of our children’s emotions or how they express them.

When our fear dissipates, so can the labels, the blame, and the shame that comes with reacting rather than responding to our child(ren)’s emotions. When we feel safe, so do they.

The Benefits of This Process

In removing the need for shaming, blaming, or labeling our children—in this newfound emotional safety we gain by understanding them—there are many benefits to allowing children to feel seen and heard while expressing their emotions. When we raise children who are comfortable and confident in their emotions, they are able to…

1. Self-soothe

2. Show up

3. Communicate

4. Problem-solve

5. Make difficult decisions

6. Take action steps

It is through empathy, connection, and allowing with non-judgment that our children will grow up into self-sufficient, emotionally mature adults.

What If It’s Not Working?

If you’ve tried this process, and you are experiencing a sense of, “It’s not working!” or “It’s making everything worse!” don’t give up!

Go about this process of change with curiosity, and keep in mind the idea of anchoring and co-anchoring. You learn how to do this by understanding your own nervous system, brain, and emotions and how you can regulate and create safety in yourself so that you can be grounded enough to be that anchor for your children and show up for their emotions.

This is where parent coaching can be a truly invaluable support, giving you the guidance, help, and judgment-free environment you need to change how you want to be with your children and yourself.

When we are not grounded, we can be saying the “right things” and showing up for our children verbally, but when we’re feeling one way while speaking another way, our children can sense this and still feel unsafe.

When we’re showing a lack of security, that’s what’s going to be felt by our children, not our well-intentioned but hollow words.

Our non-verbal communication is just as important as our verbal communication.

Dropping Our Anchor

The changes that come with doing this anchoring work do not happen overnight. We can’t just expect to snap ourselves and our children into a sense of safety on demand. This is a long process, with many ups and downs, AND it is by far one of the best things you can do for yourself and your child(ren).

Once we learn how to anchor ourselves, we learn how to hold back our words, even when they may seem helpful.

We learn how to best serve our children through their individual and complex makeup.

This happens through grounding ourselves, dropping our anchor, and observing our children with curiosity and a deep desire to understand them, their feelings, and their needs. When we serve our children in this way, we show up for them as their safe harbor.

Emotionally supporting our children is not a one-size-fits-all approach.

We create a unique safe harbor for each of our unique children.

If learning how to engage in this work for yourself, your children, your family, or your community sounds transformational to you, consider looking into an incredibly rewarding career in parent coaching.

Meet Your Author, Rebecca Lyddon, Director of Education & Master Trainer

Rebecca is propelled by a vision whereby she sees children being cared for by adults who are wise, healthy, free, creative, strong, brave, and bold. As a Social Worker, Waldorf Educator, Astrologer, 5Rhythms dancer, Playback Theater practitioner, and lifelong child advocate, Rebecca is thrilled to integrate all of her skills as a certified Parent Coach and Group Trainer.

When Rebecca is not engrossed in deep soul work, she is laughing, dancing, singing and celebrating her life with her beloved, and their two children in Lawrence, Kansas.

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What’s Actually Happening Inside Your Child’s Developing Brain

By Maggie Pouplis • June 3, 2026

Almost every parent experiences this more than once. Your child changes, and suddenly, you feel like you no longer fully understand them. The toddler who melts down over the “wrong” cup. The once easygoing school-aged child who suddenly becomes more sensitive, withdrawn, or reactive. The teenager who pulls away just when you feel the strongest urge to protect them. And somewhere in those moments, most parents begin searching for explanations. “Something changed.” “Someone is influencing them.” “They’ve become difficult.” “Social media is ruining this generation.” As parents, we naturally try to make sense of behavior. We look for causes because uncertainty feels uncomfortable, especially when it involves someone we love so deeply. But many times, what changes first is not the child’s character. It is the child’s developing brain. One of the most important things I learned during my training with the Jai Institute for Parenting was that behavior cannot be fully understood outside the context of relationship, nervous system development, and emotional safety. That perspective stayed with me and eventually led me to dive even deeper into developmental neuroscience and brain development. Because once you begin to understand how the brain develops, it stops looking like defiance, manipulation, laziness, or attitude. The behavior begins to look like development. In the early years of life, especially between ages two and four, children experience emotions intensely while still lacking the neurological maturity to regulate them independently. The areas of the brain responsible for impulse control, emotional regulation, planning, and perspective taking are still under construction. In other words, young children often feel enormous emotions inside very small nervous systems. This is why a toddler can completely fall apart because their banana broke in half or because you gave them the “wrong” spoon. To the adult brain, the reaction may seem dramatic. To the child’s nervous system, however, the distress is real. This does not mean children should grow up without boundaries . It means that in moments of emotional flooding, connection and regulation often need to come before teaching. As Dr. Daniel Siegel often explains, an overwhelmed brain cannot effectively access logic, learning, or problem-solving. The nervous system must first return to a state of safety before true learning can happen. This is where co-regulation becomes incredibly important. Children borrow our nervous systems long before they can consistently regulate themselves. They learn emotional regulation through repeated relational experiences with calm, connected adults. Of course, this does not mean parents must remain perfectly calm all the time. Parents are human beings with limits, stress, exhaustion, responsibilities, and their own nervous systems. What matters most is not perfection but repair, awareness, and the overall emotional climate of the relationship. As children move into the school-age years, something else begins to happen. Around ages five to seven, the social brain expands significantly. Children become increasingly aware of how others see them. Acceptance, belonging, comparison, fairness, and peer relationships begin carrying much more emotional weight. This is often the age when parents say things like: “They suddenly became more sensitive.” “They take everything personally now.” “They worry more than before.” And they are usually right. At this stage, children are not simply reacting emotionally. They are beginning to build a deeper social identity. Their brains are becoming more aware of social evaluation and emotional meaning within relationships. Then comes a stage I personally believe is one of the most misunderstood of all: roughly ages eight to ten. Many parents expect things to stabilize by this point. Instead, some children become quieter, more introspective, more emotionally reactive, or seemingly disconnected. Others become easily bored, frustrated, or emotionally overwhelmed. And naturally, adults begin creating narratives around those changes. “They’re lazy.” “They’ve changed.” “They don’t care anymore.” But very often, what we are witnessing is neurological reorganization rather than deterioration. During this period, the brain begins a major process called synaptic pruning. Neural connections that are not frequently used begin to weaken, while frequently used pathways become stronger and more efficient. At the same time, children develop more complex emotional awareness, deeper thinking, and a richer internal world. Many children at this age begin asking bigger questions about themselves, relationships, fairness, identity, and belonging, even if they cannot fully articulate those thoughts yet. Sometimes what adults interpret as withdrawal is actually cognitive and emotional expansion happening internally. And then adolescence arrives, perhaps the stage that activates the most fear in parents. Teenagers begin separating psychologically from their parents as part of healthy development. Their need for autonomy increases while the emotional and reward systems of the brain become highly sensitive. Peer relationships become deeply important, emotions intensify, and risk-taking often increases. To many parents, this can feel frightening or even personal. But adolescence is not a broken relationship. It is a developmental transition. Teenagers still need boundaries, guidance, and emotional safety. Perhaps more than ever. But they also need space to develop identity, autonomy, and a sense of self outside the parent-child dynamic. And maybe this is one of the biggest challenges of parenting today: learning how to remain emotionally available without trying to control every stage of development out of fear. Modern parenting often places enormous pressure on parents to react perfectly at every moment. But children do not need perfect parents. They need regulated enough adults who are willing to stay curious about what behavior may actually be communicating. Because many times, children are not trying to give us a hard time. They are trying to organize a developing brain and nervous system inside a very overstimulating world. And perhaps the question we need to ask more often is not “How do I stop this behavior?” , but “What might this developing brain be trying to communicate through it?”