Being a peaceful parent

When the kids are getting crazy, it's hard not to get angry yourself! It's important to remember that you can get through it. They're not trying to make you angry, they're just being kids, doing what they know how to do to deal with life. So, since it's important to approach any discipline (not quite the right word, since this applies to infants too) from a non-angry place, here are some things you can do.

Take a break -- make sure that your child has a childproof, safe place to be, and if everything is going wrong, take your child to their room for a few minutes. (If we're home, this usually does the trick for me - I can go somewhere else in the house, get some peace and quiet, and make a plan to change our interaction when I get back.) Just say, "I need a break for a minute, so play on your own for a bit"

Change the scenery -- go somewhere else, even if it's just another room in the house. Something as small as that can break into the cycle of craziness.

Make the most of your grown-up time. Don't spend it all doing chores around the house; listen to some music, watch something on tv, have a bath. Make time to relax a little bit every day. In my family, we almost never have a babysitter, but we've made sure that bedtime is very consistent, so that my husband and I have several hours each evening to do things together (or apart). We also take turns on the weekend to get up with our son, so that we each have a morning to relax.

Basically, as a parent, you want to cultivate a sense of self awareness so that you notice when you start to get tense or angry. When you notice yourself getting angry, you can stop yourself from yelling or fighting with your child before it even happens.