Love and Anger

I just finished reading The Five Love Languages of Children.  I enjoy a good book, and decided to take the time to read books that will inspire me to do better in important areas of my life.  Being a parent is truly one of my greatest gifts and challenges.  My children have so much potential, and I only want to encourage that not hold them back.  Surely, I've made mistakes and will still make mistakes, but knowledge is power. I would highly recommend this book to any parent.  So much great information to make me a better parent. This book is full of yellow highlighter.  I'm now busy playing detective to figure out what each of my children's primary love languages are.

Some seem easier to figure out than others.
Here are the options:
(children need all 5 of the languages, but there will be one that works best for them)

#1: Physical Touch
#2: Words of Affirmation
#3: Quality Time
#4: Gifts
#5: Acts of Service


I thought I had received the real meat and potatoes of this book as I was wrapping it up, but I was wrong.  The thing that really hit me in the gut, that I haven't been able to stop thinking about was not about love, but anger.

"It may surprise you that the primary lifetime threat to your child is his or her own anger. The mishandling of anger is related to every present and future problem your chid may have..." (p152).

The author emphasizes that the anger is not the problem, but rather the way the anger is managed.   Many parents make the mistake of disciplining the anger out of a child. Rather a parent should allow the child to express the angry feelings and then you are in the position to train your child.  This is where you have the opportunity to help them express anger in a more positive way; something that will benefit them their entire life.