As concerned parents and caregivers of young children, it is important to begin to realize that just like our children need guidance to learn how to do just about anything, they also need to be shown how to understand and manage their emotions. Let’s face it, even as adults our own emotions can at times overwhelm us. Why would it be any different for our children? In those times when their internal feelings overwhelm them, they need someone to help them understand and interpret what is going on. Most of us wee not taught how to deal with anger which is a reality of life, other than to hurry to get rid of it. We were led to believe that displaying anger was “bad” and there was some sense of quilt imposed for expressing it. Rather than making the solution about how to repress or dismiss it, the goal should be helping the child understand how it came about in the first place. After that, it should be about validating their feeling, and then helping to find constructive solutions to manage it. Only telling a child what he or she has done wrong after expressing anger does little to help him understand how he got there. As a therapist and child advocate, it is important to share the awareness and understanding that a child’s anger or irritability may be the by-product of sadness and/or depression. Yes, children can struggle with and have depression just as adults. With a combination of modeling appropriate behavior, we as adults must assess our own behavior and take steps to share our understanding to help children comprehend their emotional states, parents and/or the childcare providers can have a powerful influence on our children’s behaviors. Most of all, let us not forget that our interactions with our children should be expressed in a way that the child knows he is heard, loved and valued. Afterall, having someone who understands how we feel is a powerful thing that we could all use a little more of.