I Went to Costco for Paper Towels - and Witnessed a Parenting Moment I'll Never Forget

Yesterday, I witnessed the makings of a nuclear meltdown in the cereal aisle at Costco. Dad and his three kids were trying to pick out their favorite cereal when things took a turn. The 4-year old boy was not getting his way and he's about to lose it. When I see stuff like this happen, I try to get out of the way because I feel for the parents dealing with this in public. But what I saw happen made me stop my cart mid-aisle to watch this Masterclass in Parenting 101.

Before this child could get beyond the point of no return Dad simply drew his son's attention to his eyes without saying a word. He used his fingers to get his son to turn his head and 'look at me'. Dad placed his hand on his heart while his son did the same. Dad then closed his eyes, took a big, deep breath in, held it for a good 3 Mississippi, and then let it out. His son mimicked him, closed his eyes, took a deep breath while holding his hand over his heart and calmed the blank down! It was REMARKABLE! They did this 3 more times!!! Not only the kid in the cart, but his two other brothers standing next to them. And guess what - yours truly was regulating my emotions in the Cereal aisle at Costco, too! Without realizing it, I had placed my hand on my heart to follow Dad's lead. In fact, I found myself doing it multiple times yesterday and today.

I see so many people who have a nervous system stuck in survival mode. Their emotional body has either turned to ice or it's overflowing, and they don't know what to do. This Dad demonstrated a beautiful way to connect with your body, shut out all the noise, take a deep breath, calm down and Be. Here. Now. That's it. Just stop the emotional rollercoaster from going off the rails, shut everything down for a moment, close your eyes, go inside, check-in with yourself, cry, scream, say the thing you need to say, give yourself permission to feel whatever you are avoiding, sit with it, take a deep breath and then let it go.

Brené Brown has shared that when we get overly emotional our 'thinking brain' goes offline. The logical, reasoning part of our brain gets bypassed when we are triggered by a high-stress situation. We literally can't be reasoned with when our emotions have taken over! But if you can calm down, pull yourself out of the movie for a moment, become the Observer and listen to the story you are telling yourself you can re-write this experience.

Reacting so calmly in the middle of Costco takes practice. I imagine Dad using this technique on himself quite often. If you want this to be your immediate reflex then you need to start practicing it so you can default to this reaction when the need arises. It's just muscle memory. The stuff we do every day eventually becomes automatic. So why not practice doing things that enrich your life.

And let's all remember, the Kirkland Signature brand is just as good as the name brand. In most cases, they are both made by the same company. But he's just four - take a breath and calm down, kid. It's going to be okay.