Venting Machines

With a stressful beginning to our school year, and my anger-o-meter always slightly dipping into the red, I dug deep into my parenting books so I could get myself 'reset' on how to handle all the daily battles with the kiddos. Once again, I was reminded that anger is what the kids are aiming for, and therefore, it achieves nothing. They push buttons, and if they are successful, they will only push more. After all, it is fun and fulfilling to succeed!

So since we aren't suppose to vent in front of our children (to avoid them gaining satisfaction that they can accomplish their goals by misbehaving!), and we are supposed to remain calm, despite we might blow up inside. Where do we vent? Where do we release? A yoga class? Sorry, we can't wait a single minute sometimes, let alone a few days or hours. I think we Moms need a sacred spot in our own homes to sneak away from the kids, have our small vent session, and return to them all calm and cool as a cucumber. After all, it seems to be pretty general agreement in the parenting world that if they can't rattle you, they won't battle you.

So, I thought what we need is a venting machine. We need to be able to deposit our frustrations and anger and stress and out comes something delightful. When we put money into a vending machine, we choose something delicious, or soothing, or nutritious (well, not usually I guess), but anyway, we walk away happy. So with a venting machine, we could receive some peace, in some form. I haven't worked out exactly what yet. I'm still working on the kinks.

But when I googled 'venting machine', I realized that I didn't in'vent' this idea at all. I came across these images on a blog called Mental_Floss. Maybe this is what we need in a shed out back, where we can go to count to ten, take a withdrawal, release our anger, and return to our children all smiles.

I don't usually feel the need to break something when I feel angry, but I guess lots of people do, hence this machine's purpose. I tend to fall into the 'screamer' category, where I just want to yell at the top of my lungs, RELEASE! So my machine would need to suck in a really big scream and dish out some dark chocolate in return. Then I can return to my kids, grab a glass of milk, and have a nice conversation with them.

Everyone is happier when the tension is low. So, venting machine or not, my focus is giving my kids my good energy, and helping them to recognize how not to drain it!

Reference and recommendation: Love and Logic books. They are fantastic!
Mental Floss blog post (images) - http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/43970