“When I’m in a relationship with his behaviors there is less for me to see and love and adore and protect. But when I put that down, it opens my eyes to all the things that make him special, unique that I love and want to protect in him!” - Amanda Doyle, We Can Do Hard Things This quote hit me hard. It reminded me of the years I had invested into removing unwanted behavior and how I was exclusively focused on the behavior, not the child in front of me. In this episode I talk about how we can begin to separate the behavior from our child. And steps we can take as their safe caregiver to understand their behavior more clearly and how we can get curious and connect with them in order to fall back in love and connection with our child vs. focus only on their behavior.  FREE GUIDES! Make sure you grab my Free Guide to Managing Meltdowns: https://responseableparenting.ck.page/meltdown 4 steps to get you through your kid’s meltdown without snapping!  Do you find yourself yelling more often than you want? Does it feel like yelling is the ONLY way to get through to your kids? But it makes you feel awful? You absolutely need my Free Guide To Stop Yelling: https://responseableparenting.ck.page/yelling  This guide will walk you through the process of staying regulated and give you tools to use during high stress moments. COMMUNITY! The community is CLOSED. Please join the waitlist and gain access to my weekly newsletter to be informed of when the community opens again.  https://responseableparenting.ck.page/newsletter BE A GUEST! If you would like to be a guest on the podcast and troubleshoot what's going on for you in real time, please fill out the podcast submission form. I look forward to connecting with you! Submit here: https://bit.ly/4c57Tx5