PIRACY

I NEED HELP! (AND I’M GETTING LOUD, INTENSE, UNSURE)

When your child is angry with you, when she seems loud or clingy or especially hard to soothe or hard to please, we might say she is in pirate mode.

Sometimes it might seem like she is deliberately being difficult, ‘pushing your buttons’, or even or outright attacking you!

Children turn to piracy when, for whatever reason, they feel less sure than usual that someone will be able help them with what they need.  If she is feeling less sure she will be seen and heard, it makes sense for her to get bigger, louder, angrier, or cling more intensely.