Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child

The key to having an emotionally intelligent child is emotion coaching. This often involves empathizing with children when they are having strong emotional fillings. They need to understand that it is normal to have feelings, but that they need to learn to act appropriately. It is, however, not appropriate to engage in emotion coaching all the time. If a parent has an urgent need to attend to, a child can sense that he is not getting full attention. Similarly, when the child is engaging in poor behavior, the behavior must also be addressed. Emotion coaching makes sense, but properly carrying it out in the heat of the moment is a challenge.
The book provides some tips on emotion coaching as well as ways to assess the style of parent you are. Some of examples of parenting types seem counter-intuitive, but do make sense when looked at in detail. It is also important to assess the behavior towards others in the family. Parents tend to suffer greatly when parents undergo divorce. However, it is often the fighting and lack of empathy in unresolved conflicts that are the issues. The actual separation is just a small add on to the otherwise poorly modeled behavior. Children need to feel that their parents empathize with their struggles. Parents should not belittle things that the child feels are important. The parent should also help children to make the decisions on their own. That is how they build experience and learn how to manage their strong feelings.