The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.
—Voltaire
When you’re in a bad mood, you know what your kids are thinking? They think it has something to do with them. They don’t understand all the responsibility you’re shouldering. They don’t know about the coworker whose stupidity you had to put up with all day or your boss’s short temper and unrealistic expectations. They can’t see the stress all this stuff puts you under. These are all complex emotional issues that are hard for a young kid to understand, especially when the issues are outside their own lived experience.
Our moods and choices and the examples we set are affecting our kids always, changing how they see the world and how they see themselves. How we are managing all this stuff makes them feel better or worse, worthwhile or worthless, safe or vulnerable. And in the process, we are creating a pattern for them that becomes hard not to follow—for better or for worse.
Your kids are either suffering or benefiting from your moods and emotions. Behave accordingly.