Not losing it is about having just enough self-awareness to notice what’s going on in and around you so you can make a conscious choice to get still and calm down or just shut your mouth before you react—even if you have no idea what to do next. Even if you have absolutely no clue how to respond to your kid’s offensive or obnoxious or only-slightly-irritating-but-you-just-can’t-handle-it-today behavior, I promise that anything you come up with from a place of relative calm will be more effective and empathic than whatever knee-jerk reaction you bust out with when you’re freaking out.
