Is it ok for your kids to see you cry? Not like if someone died I mean tears of frustration, tiredness or general sadness. Have you ever done this?

I only saw my parents have “real” emotions a few times growing up and wish they had been more open in that respect. It was very much frowned upon for us to have any type of emotion that wasn’t considered traditionally “positive” (anger, sadness, etc). I wish my parents had modeled how to field these emotions and made me feel it was normal instead of shaming me for being human.

Kids need us to show it's ok to be emotional but also need to know that we are absolutely fine even when we are sad

My husband and I got into it a few days ago and I got realllyyyyyy upset (more than usual) and I was in absolute tears and my daughter (16m 1/3) asked for “mama” and came and literally just laid in my arms and cuddled me till I was smiling at her. She knows when I’m upset and it definitely affects her and she somehow just knew that I needed her hugs in that moment and it was beautiful.

Yes, my parents always hid their emotions other than anger and I don't think this was healthy. Also when I cried I was specifically told to stop crying or that I was being silly for Crying myself. Crying shouldn't be something only done in private, children need to know it's ok to feel our emotions and express those to others.

I can’t vote because I haven’t had my baby yet, but I will 100% not hide away from her if I am upset. Yes in hysterics is different and there is also a difference between expecting your child to comfort you and just explaining to them how you are feeling. We need to teach our children that having strong emotions is okay and is actually good, and teach them how to deal with them. If we start running off every time that we get upset, they will learn that’s what they should also do. It’s important to let them see you going through these emotions, why you are feeling that way and let them see how you work through them. Saying things like ‘mummy is upset right now because of …’ and then ‘mummy is going to do her deep breathes’ or ‘mummy is going to XYZ’. It helps us regulate our emotions as we are focusing on our children, not over thinking the same things making us more upset, and it doubles as teaching them regulation techniques. it’s a win win ❤️

Yes! My daughter is only 4 months old, so I'm not sure how much she understands. I believe showing our emotions, labeling them, and showing them how we move on from them is extremely important. Modeling how we handle our emotions will help our children deal with their own emotions. When I was crying, I told my daughter, "Mommy is crying because I'm really tired and frustrated. I just need to cry for a little bit, take a few breaths, and I will feel better in a few minutes. " While my daughter might be too young to understand it was good practice for me.

It’s very healthy for children to see you have large emotions and how you resolve them and how you handle them. Just like it’s super important for them to see their parents, argue, and fight and then resolve the issue. That way they see that fighting doesn’t necessarily end. Things crying isn’t a bad thing and all things can be resolved. It helps them regulate themselves.

Yes!!! They should see things like that. Maybe not every time- depending on how often you do it lol. But they need to see stuff like that

Absolutely I think it's important to show them that emotions are OK and part of life and show them ways to deals with it

I think it's actually very important for kids to see parents cry. It helps teach them it's okay to have such feelings and it allows you to model how to deal with such big feelings. I remember seeing my mom cry a lot as a kid. It taught me that tears aren't just reserved for sadness. I remember being confused to learn about happy tears, but it was a good thing to learn through seeing it. I am personally shameless with my tears now. If I'm at work in pain, I'm letting those tears fall if they want to. If I'm upset on the bus, if I'm overwhelmed at home. Anywhere, anytime. (Though it is still quite rare for me) If I gotta cry, I gotta cry. It's a perfectly normal human function and there is nothing productive about holding them in.

I’ve never seen my parents cry and I got told not to cry but I think it’s important to show our vulnerability to our kids and then the see how we bounce back. I always say to my baby it’s okay to have big feelings and I like to lead by example