Shout it out!

You know how, when the kids are tired / hungry / don't get what they want, they just stand in one place and wail at the top of their lungs...

The people who were still at T's wedding on the Sunday afternoon all went for a game drive. E had heard something about a game drive planned for the afternoon and at 5pm when everyone left and she was told that she couldn't go with she just stood in the middle of the garden and cried. Not a quiet, discreet little sob. She stood with her mouth wide open, the tears streaming down her cheeks, her little body shaking with anger - and howled.

When J's angry or upset she lets us know about it too. She throws herself down and with her little fists pounding the floor, her feet kicking and her face all screwed up - she howls. It doesn't last long. She throws me a forlorn look then puts her arms up in the air and calls "Maaair" until I pick her up and give her a cuddle.

And then what happens? They feel better. They've let go of the emotion and they move on - feeling better and maybe even empowered....

Then we come along - us 'grown ups'. We get just as angry and upset as the kids do. We feel just as hard-done-by as they do. In fact we have a whole lot more to howl about than they do. But, what do we do? We ignore the person we're upset with; we sit alone in a room and have a quiet sob to ourselves; we give ourselves a shake and turn our thoughts to something else. It's all very calm and civilised and 'grown up'. But do we feel better? I think we'd be so much more emotionally stable if we just stood in one place, scrunched up our faces and let out a good howl...