When children's feelings are dismissed or argued with, they escalate. When feelings are accepted and named, children can begin to move through them. You do not have to fix the feeling; sitting with it is the intervention.

When you cannot give children what they want, grant it in imagination. This is not distraction. It communicates: I understand how much you want this, and your wanting makes sense to me.

You will lose your temper. Every parent does. What matters is the repair afterwards. Repair is not the same as apologising: an apology tries to close a conversation; a repair opens one up.

Tears are healthy. They signal that something matters. Some children feel everything more intensely: this is a trait, not a disorder. Their intensity is also their superpower: they feel joy, love, and passion just as deeply.

Children's emotional vocabulary is limited. When they cannot name what they feel, they act it out. Expanding their feeling words helps them understand their inner experience rather than being overwhelmed by it.

Children cope with separation by internalising their parent: building an internal representation of the caregiver that they carry with them. At 3, this representation is still forming. The clinginess at drop-off is not manipulation; it is their attachment system working as it should.