Growing Feelings (kids)

A Kids' Guide to Dealing with Emotions about Friends and Other Kids Everyone likes the idea of "best friends forever," but friendships are complicated, and often involve dealing with difficult feelings. It's common to feel shy at a party where you don't know anyone, furious during an argument with a friend, or sad when a friend moves away. This entertaining and empowering book addresses a wide range of feelings, including worry, guilt, jealousy, compassion, and gratitude. Kids learn how to recognize the Feelings Story behind common friendship rough spots, demonstrating the links between events, thoughts, emotions, actions, and social reactions through the situational cartoons and understand how their reactions fuel or resolve relationship problems. Here is a nuanced perspective on feelings about friends that emphasizes how all emotions are useful. Kids learn how to empathize with others' reactions, as well as how to understand, manage, and communicate in healthy ways about their own feelings. Caring friendships are a protective factor for children's mental health. Giving kids the tools they need to deal with the feelings about friends is a powerful step toward protecting and improving their well-being.