Kids Anger Behavior
Rules for Getting Your Mads Out
- Check your tummy, jaws and your fis
ts. See if the mads are coming.
- Breathe! Blow your mad out.
- Get your control. Feel good about getting your control.
- Stop and think; make a good choice.
- Remember to use your firm words, not your fists.
- Use a strong voice and talk your mads out. Say “I feel mad when you ____.
- Sometimes you need to take a time out to get your control back.
- “People are not to be hurt with your hands, feet or voice. You Can’t hurt people just because you are mad.
- Take yourself off to a safe place and talk to yourself.
- Pat yourself on the back for getting your mad out nicely.
Things to Do Later if the Mads Are Still There
- Remember, mads don’t have to stay inside you. Talk to someone who can help you sort out the feelings that made you feel bad.
- Draw lots of pictures about what makes you angry. Make big, colorful angry drawings. Make mad noises when you draw. BIG, MAD NOISES!
- Put your pictures in the freezer to cool off those mads. Or let your refrigerator hold pictures of your mads.
- Pound on clay or on pillows. Scream and yell and pull those mads out of your stomach. Let those mads run down your fists and into the pillow.
- Go out in the back yard and dig a hole. (Or just pretend to dig in your living room.) Pull all those mads up and out of you and put them down in the hole. Then cover them up with dirt and jump up and down, stomping on the mads.
- Put your mads in soap bubbles and blow them away. Watch those feelings float up to the sun and poof! Act out the story of your mads with dolls, stuffed animals or plastic dinosaurs.
- Get permission to tear up an old magazine. Rip each page out, one by one as you make “big mad noises.” Then throw those mad feelings away by putting all the pages in the trash.
- Get permission to put your anger in a raw egg. Write the name of the person you are mad at on an egg. Go to a wide open space and pull up all your mads to put in the egg. Throw your mads as far as you can and yell and scream … “Aaaaagh!”
Things to Do if Someone Bigger Starts to Hurt You
- Leave. Don’t stay. Take care of yourself.
- If the person is bigger than you, get away from him or her. Go to a safe place and take care of yourself. Find a place where you feel safe. Or run to some adult you trust or to your neighbor’s house.
- Find some safe people to talk to. If the first person does not listen, find someone else.
- Remember kids should not be hurt. Not even parents are supposed to hurt little kids. Keep talking until you find someone to help you.
- If you or other people in your family are being hurt badly, call 911 and ask for help.
- If someone is touching you in ways that you do not like, call the Child Abuse Hot Line at 1-800-422-4453.