As a parent, I’m always on the lookout for tips and reminders to help me be “on my toes” as a parent and work toward being the Super-Dad I want to be.

Today I received an email from Tumblon.com regarding developmental milestones of my 4 year old son.

The email from the parenting website that focuses on the 0-5 year old set shared some advice about the emotional development my son may be experiencing these days.

Here’s one segment of the email I received regarding moodiness of a 4 year old:

MOODINESS

Part of your child’s personality is moodiness. Even the most even-tempered child will experience moodiness at some time. Helping your child recognize what triggers his moodiness, learning how to control moodiness, and finding ways to overcome moodiness are essential to his development.

Part of managing moodiness is understanding the factors that trigger moodiness in your child. Some of the common factors are sleepiness, hunger, and frustration. Knowing what commonly triggers moodiness in your child and having him take ownership in avoiding situations that trigger it will help. For example, if hunger triggers it, remember to take a healthy snack when going out. Sometimes the type of diet your child has can affect his emotions. Paying attention to the way he reacts to different kinds of foods may help with some moodiness. . .

[exceprt from tumblon.com article]

In order to help my little guy in figuring out how to initiate, build, and manage his relationships over the next several months in particular I realize that the first step is to help him to self-inventory his own feelings at any given moment.

Being able to put a finger on how he feels right now will help him interact with his friends and sister (& mom and dad!) with much better results. Of course this is a classic win-win situation.

But then while I reflected upon this advice, it hit me that this is great insight for any parent, but not just of 4 year olds!

Don’t we all know of ADULTS around us at work, school and family who haven’t had the chance to really get a handle on their own moodiness and emotions? Yes, you know whom I’m talking about. They are all around us, everywhere, aren’t they!?

But the more I thought about the subject, I’d realized that that there’s someone in particular I should add to the top of that list….

…would it be…myself?

Related, Marshall Rosenberg’s framework of Non-Violent Communication zeroes in on feelings as a critical part of the 4-step process for producing life-serving actions toward others.

In order to connect compassionately with other people, Rosenberg teaches that feelings are lightning rods to the underlying universal human needs that are being met (or not).  If you can become more aware of the feelings inside someone and yourself, the closer you will be to indentifying the real met or unmet need that can be the hingepoint for peace or destruction.

Before I can even start to think about sharing the transformational aspects of my Christian walk with others, an authentic relationship has to be established first.  And the initial baby step (actually a 4-year old-like step) is to become better aware of the feelings which hinder or contribute to life-enriching relationships.

So how ARE you feeling right now?

And how is the person you’re connecting with feeling?

The advice from the tumblon.com guys were spot-on in my opinion.  But this one peice of advice definitely ain’t kids’ stuff.

Why not share some of your thoughts and even just jot down how you are feeling right now this second in the comment section below!