Stop Escalating Your Kid’s Meltdowns (And What To Do Instead)
After Bedtime with Big Little Feelings
Dear Media and Big Little Feelings
4.5 • 5.8K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2026
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If your child’s meltdowns feel constant. If you find yourself yelling, threatening, negotiating, or completely losing your mind over the smallest things. If you’ve ever thought, “WHY are they freaking out over THIS?” This episode will change the way you see tantrums and meltdowns forever. Because your child is not melting down over the banana, or the cup, or the pasta touching the sauce (it's not about the pasta!!!). The real reason your child is melting down is much deeper.
After this episode, you’ll:
* Know exactly what to do in the face of a tantrum or meltdown, no matter your child's age
* Stop escalating power struggles without meaning to
* Know exactly what your child’s nervous system needs in hard moments
* Recognize the hidden stressors causing meltdowns and emotional explosions
* Learn how to calm the chaos without bribing, threatening, or giving in
* Understand the neuroscience behind co-regulation and why your presence changes your child’s brain long-term
* And start handling meltdowns in a way that builds emotional regulation for life
Once you understand the brain behind the behavior, everything changes. This episode honestly applies to everyone: toddlers, tweens, spouses, in-laws… every human nervous system on earth.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast is a dear media production. |
| 0:05.3 | Welcome back to another episode of After Bedtime Besties. |
| 0:09.3 | I'm so glad you are here. |
| 0:12.0 | Today I just want to talk about meltdowns. |
| 0:14.6 | I want to talk about tantrums. |
| 0:15.8 | I want to talk about freakouts. |
| 0:17.3 | No matter how old your child is, they could be a toddler, they could be a tween, |
| 0:21.6 | they could be your husband, having an adult tantrum. We need to talk about, it's not about the pasta. |
| 0:30.1 | Okay, that's what I'm titling this episode. It's not about the pasta. And it's not about the |
| 0:36.0 | cracker. And it's not about the banana. It's not about the |
| 0:39.1 | cup. Okay? I want to talk about what's actually behind this tantrum moment, this meltdown moment |
| 0:47.2 | because we are trying to fix whatever is happening in front of us. We're trying to fix |
| 0:52.7 | the pasta that they are screaming about |
| 0:54.6 | or the cup or the completely irrational thing that your kid just completely lost it over. But there |
| 0:59.7 | are so many things that are actually beneath the surface. And those are the things that we want to |
| 1:06.5 | focus on in the moment rather than whatever banana thing is happening in the moment. And it's really, |
| 1:12.8 | really hard. I watch my husband, God bless him. I love him, but I watch him fall into this trap |
| 1:20.2 | almost every single day and try to negotiate or logic or fix whatever random thing, the banana, the pasta, blah, blah, blah, blah. And everything |
| 1:31.2 | in me wants to scream. It's not about the pasta. Shout out to Vanderpump Rules, people, if you're |
| 1:35.2 | listening. Let's talk about tantrums and meltdowns. Welcome to after bedtime, where the house is |
| 1:41.9 | finally quiet, but the real noise begins. The thoughts, the questions, |
| 1:46.8 | the wondering if you're doing any of this right. We're Kristen and Dina, child behavior experts, |
... |
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