Big Feelings Here

“You could feel things or you could find a way to shut down. But once you were feeling things, you couldn’t decide exactly what to feel. That was the trouble with letting them in at all. They made a mess of the place.” ― Ann Brashares

Maeve had, yesterday, what I like to nicely term a "big feelings" day.  That means that every tiny emotion that passed through her cortex came out magnified about a hundred times.  So dropping a piece of food on the floor was a national tragedy, wanting another hot dog when Mom wouldn't give it was an emotional blow from which she may never recover, etc.

I want to clarify, though, that when Maeve has big feelings, I don't think she's doing it on purpose or being manipulative.  It's like she spends all day in the emotional state the usually only occupies the ten or twenty minutes before naptime.  You don't blame a kid for overreacting when it's ten minutes before nap or bed, that's totally normal behavior for them.  Except big feelings usually last all day.

The big feelings were set off by spending an hour of her morning interacting with another kid.  Maeve had to share and take turns with another kid for a whole hour, which ended in a complete breakdown when the other kid wouldn't do exactly what Maeve wanted her to do, exactly when Maeve wanted her to do it. 

We had a lot of discussions about how all beings are free to create their own destiny, and that includes what they might want to wear for dress up.  We had to stop everything and draw pictures of how Maeve felt after an incident with a Jack in the Box.  Sometimes I feel more like a Toddler Therapist than a mommy.  But even after my interventions, and my non-interventions, the volcano erupted, and playtime was over.

We'll see what today brings, but I am hoping the feelings today will be more regular-sized.  Or even toddler-sized.

Before the chaos.