GREAT concept, BUT.....

The psychiatrist soooo don't know my kid.

I was watching a show yesterday on TLC called "Surviving Motherhood". It's basically a show about a mommy's group and each day they focus on a different mom and her "issues" surrounding being a mother and raising children.

Well, yesterday the mommy has a 4 year old boy.

He had major anxiety issues and anger problems.

They had a psychiatrist on that said 4 year olds want independence (DUH!) and to make their own choices (DUH!).

One way to diffuse anger or anxiety is breathing techniques. But, how many 4 year olds want to do deep breathing? So the psychiatrist suggested blowing up a pretend balloon. Let your child choose the shape, the color and the size of the balloon. Then work with him to blow up that balloon. Great way to get in your breathing exercises right?

So last night in the car Zachary was escalating himself out of control. I was like "WHOAS! I can use what I learned because it was a GREAT idea!"

So, I tell Zachary to pick a color of balloon ("brown"...okay, yuck, but whateva HIS choice). And then we start to blow it up BIG. So, while he's blowing it up I'm explaining to Chuck what I saw and that I thought it was a great idea. He agreed (in his "hmph" kind of way).

Zachary got his balloon blowed up, showed it to me, then popped it. Then promptly began to fake cry louder and louder and louder.

So much for de-escalating the situation. They just don't know my kid!