Episode Details

If your morning routine for preschool looks less like a smooth routine and more like 21 rounds of "no", "stop", and "not like that" before 8 am, then things aren’t working well for either of you.   In this episode, we walk through one ordinary preschool morning minute by minute, from the cereal bowl to the car seat buckle.   We also learn how to move from: "how do I get my child to cooperate" to: what is going on inside my child's body right now, and what are they trying to communicate through the flopping, dawdling, silliness, and defiance?   Because when you understand that, you can find strategies that meet both of your needs.  

Questions This Episode Will Answer

Why is my child so difficult in the morning? Preschoolers live almost entirely in the present moment and learn through movement and touch. When a morning is filled with a steady stream of corrections, their nervous system experiences it as "everything I do is wrong" - and the silliness, defiance, or shutdown you see is their body's response to that overload.   Why is my child grumpy in the morning? It's often less about the time of day and more about the cumulative weight of limits. When children experience correction after correction with little room for exploration or connection, grumpiness and shutdown are common signals that their needs aren't being met.   Why do kids dilly-dally and dawdle in the morning? What looks like dawdling is often a child following genuine curiosity, moving their body the way it wants to go, or trying to connect with you before the day pulls you apart.   What is meant by "behavior is communication"? Preschoolers don't yet have the words to say "this is too much for me" or "I need to feel close to you right now". So they show you with their bodies. Finger-stirring cereal, flopping on the floor, asking to be carried - each of these is a message, if you know how to listen for it. When you understand that message you can help them meet their need - which also meets your needs for peace, ease, and order.   Is misbehavior an unmet need? Often, yes. When you look beneath challenging behaviors in young children, you frequently find unmet needs for things like autonomy, movement, connection, or play. The behavior is a signal pointing you toward what your child actually needs. If you want to find out your child’s biggest need (and easy, actionable strategies to meet it that make your life easier), take this free quiz.   What are some reasons children misbehave? In early childhood, most challenging behavior traces back to a mismatch between a child's developmental capacity and what's being asked of them, combined with needs they’re trying to meet in ways you’re finding irritating.   Preschoolers aren't misbehaving to make your life harder. They don’t know how else to meet their needs.  

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• How to walk through a typical preschool morning routine and see it through your child's eyes, moment by moment
• What your child's most frustrating behaviors (flopping, dawdling, silliness, defiance) are often communicating about their needs
• Why the total number of corrections across a morning matters as much as any single limit you set
• What your needs are in the morning routine, and why they are just as valid as your child's needs
• How it’s possible to meet your needs AND your child’s needs
• How to start moving toward fewer, clearer limits that your preschooler's nervous system can actually work with
• What t