Dr Alex George: Why We Struggle With Our Children’s Emotions - And How to Change It
Motherkind
Zoe Blaskey
4.8 • 863 Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Have you ever found yourself saying to your child, "You're OK, don't cry," whilst knowing you mean well, but feeling like something deeper is happening?
This week’s Moment explores a powerful idea: we can only hold our children's emotions to the extent that we can hold our own. So many of us grew up believing resilience meant pushing through, staying strong and keeping it together. But what if real resilience is actually the opposite?
In this conversation, Zoe and Dr Alex George explore the emotional patterns we inherit, why so many of us struggle to sit with difficult feelings, and how learning to hold our own emotions changes the way we parent. There’s a moment where Zoe shares a huge realisation: the reason she struggled with her children’s big feelings wasn’t because of them - it was because no one had ever taught her how to handle her own.
If you've ever felt uncomfortable with your child's tears, frustration or meltdowns, this episode might help explain why.
💡 In this episode, you'll learn:
Why resilience isn't about "pushing through"
The parenting patterns we pass on without realising
Why many millennial parents were never taught emotional processing
How our early years shape the way we respond to stress
A simple reframe that can help you hold difficult feelings - yours and your child's
Listen now and see whether this changes the way you think about emotions, resilience and parenting.
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If you enjoyed this episode, you can listen to the full episode - Why Raising Resilient Kids Starts With Us with Dr Alex George
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, my love and welcome to Motherkind. It is me, your host, Zoe. This is the show for you, |
| 0:06.6 | the woman behind the mother, a moment to take an exhale, take a moment for yourself, hopefully |
| 0:12.8 | here's some wisdom that is going to help you along your day. It is a Monday, which means it is a |
| 0:17.3 | mother kind moment. This moment is with the incredible Dr. Alex George and it is about |
| 0:23.2 | what resilience really means. It is about how feeling our feelings, far from meaning that |
| 0:29.5 | there's something wrong, actually means that when we are in emotion, we are doing everything |
| 0:35.6 | right. And only then, once we can attach to our own feelings |
| 0:39.3 | and process them, can we help our children do the same? I love this clip. It really inspired me |
| 0:45.1 | this week to just focus on allowing whatever is present for me to come through. And that will |
| 0:50.3 | then allow me to do it for my girls this week. So I hope it inspires you too. Here it is. |
| 0:56.6 | What's fascinating is that it's a particular challenge of our generation, of us kind of millennial |
| 1:02.4 | parents, because we really were taught in the 80s, late 70s, 80s that resilience and strength |
| 1:09.1 | was pushing through. And I know for me, and it'd be interesting |
| 1:13.3 | to get your perspective, I've had to completely rewire and relearn that resilience is actually |
| 1:20.1 | feeling my feelings. Resilience is being really messy. And only when I could do that for myself could I then have the capacity to do that with my |
| 1:33.8 | children. I remember when mine were little and they were tantrum, I couldn't handle it. And then I had |
| 1:38.0 | this light bulb moment. The reason I couldn't handle it is because I couldn't handle my own emotions. |
| 1:43.2 | So how the hell was that? So I went away and I |
| 1:46.0 | actually learned how to feel my feelings because no one had ever taught me that. And now, |
| 1:52.8 | interestingly, I do exactly what, you know, you talk about in the book and what my psychologists |
| 1:58.0 | have told you where I can. My little girls can come home crying and I don't |
| 2:01.9 | fix it. That sounds really sad. It makes so much sense to mummy that you're sad. I'd be sad if that |
... |
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