As a parent we are expected to keep our cool and never appear like life is getting to us. It’s our jobs to mold our kid(s), into the best person we can help them be. Part of that job is teaching them about different emotions that they might feel, and how to properly cope with them. Most children learn by watching, then they usually copy the behavior they’ve seen. It’s important and even healthy for kid(s) to watch us deal and cope with different emotions, in a healthy positive way of course. We let them watch us experience emotions such as: sadness, tamed anger, grieving, mild frustration and most importantly happiness. What about other things, like stress? Well personally I try my best to bottle up my stress and frustration like most parents, I don’t like my kids seeing me stressed. I want them to be able to act like kids, be carefree and be able to enjoy their childhood. I don’t want them burdened with the stress of adult things; like paying bills, making appointments, deciding what’s for supper, etc. The problem with bottling things up is eventually over time it becomes so overwhelming that the cap on the “bottle” pops.
Several weeks ago, I got my kids grandpa to cut down a couple of trees at the back of the house; and it left quite a mess in the backyard. A lot of the cut up trees needed to be broken down to smaller pieces, and I didn’t have any way to cut them so I just let them sit there. Personally for me, knowing that something needs to be done and it not being done causes it to sit in the back of my mind. It eats at me till what ever it is gets done, and this afternoon my “bottle” had popped. My oldest was at school, and my mom came to watch the other two while I went outside alone. I used all my frustration, anger, and stress and threw all the wood from the ground onto the deck. Then I mowed the lawn in the backyard. 
After that was all said and done, I still didn’t feel any better. So what did I do with my anger, frustration and stress? I did what needed to be done, I broke the pieces of wood by hand. If anyone had seen me, they would have probably thought I was a crazy lady off her meds. I was a mess, covered in wood chips, grass and dirt. I was bawling my eyes, and breaking wood with my hands. Once everything was broken down to “fire pit” size, I felt a wave of relief wash over me.
It’s not appropriate to break things to make yourself feel better, but in this special circumstance it was the perfect thing to make me feel better. It also helped me get something done that I’ve been waiting for weeks to be done. So it was a win-win-win all around, and I’ve got to say it was very therapeutic.
Do you have any good coping skills for dealing with stress and frustration?