Our elder son is a stubborn boy. When he gets upset, he rolls up into a ball, and won’t speak to anyone. Sometimes, he isn’t even willing to tell us what’s wrong in the first place. I found a solution that has helped us many times in the past, and that is to create a made-up character. I gave the character a funny name and a funny high-pitched voice. Surprisingly, the character had the same exact problem as my son. He was wondering if anyone could help him figure out what to do. My son slowly get up and begin to talk to the character in an attempt to help him out and solve the issue.
Sometimes, if I didn’t know what’s wrong, the character would just cry and be very upset. My son would try to console him and would say “What’s wrong?” I would answer that “I’m very sad, just like you. Why are you sad?” then, my son would go on to reveal what’s bothering him. I would of course reply with astonishment – “Really?! That’s exactly what happened to me!!”. We would then go on and find solutions to our mutual trouble… 🙂
Contributed by – Anonymous