5 Creative Outlets for Your Child’s Anger

Looking for creative outlets for your child’s anger?  We could all use this helpful information at one point or another right?  All kids get angry at some point in time, and our job as parents is to help teach them healthy ways to calm down.  Validating his emotions are important, you want to talk about them, and that might be easier to do when he is distracted by some of these creative outlets.  Who wants to sit down one on one at the kitchen table and have a discussion about their feelings?  I sure don’t, and I know my kids don’t either.  Instead of that, check out these 5 creative outlets for your child’s anger. 

Related: 5 Books to Help Kids Learn to Manage their Anger

Creative Outlets for Your Child’s Anger

Roll down a hill

 This may sound a little silly but think about it, when you were a kid and rolling down a hill, weren’t you laughing and dizzy at the bottom?  Who can stay mad when tumbling down a grassy hill?  Get in on it mom, and have some races to see who can go the fastest or furthest.  Just be sure to look out for trees and other obstacles at the bottom or along the way, we are trying to alleviate your child’s anger, not create another situation.

Pillow fight

Why not?  Pillow fights are so fun; everyone ends up laughing and falling on the floor because who can laugh and stand on your own two feet while being hit with a pillow?  Your child will feel more confident too when mom or dad fall in defeat.  Be sure to set some ground rules first, like no hitting in the face, body only and if someone says ‘stop’ you have to stop (that goes for you too mom!)

Play-dough

Playing with playdough is always fun because you can squeeze it as hard as you can and you can’t break it!  Perfect for a child having an angry moment, he can roll it into a ball, and then pound it out on the table, and then start all over again.  Once he feels a little better, encourage him to roll it up and create something that makes him happy.  He can make a pizza, or a car or a big ole smiley face, whatever makes him happy.

Splat

This is great water fun, so be sure to pick a place that is easy to clean up, like the driveway, backyard or tub or shower.  Grab a bunch of sponges and a bucket of water.  Let the sponge fill up with water, raise it above your head and throw on the ground, as hard as you can!  If you have a wall or fence, you can throw it at, even better!  See how far back you can stand and then throw the soaking wet sponge as hard as you can at it.  Talk about it while you are doing it, encourage your child to say what makes them angry and then throw the sponge.  For example, “It makes me mad when kids at school make fun of me” SPLAT!  This is a great and safe way to let out aggression.

Angry crayons

Crayons are a great art medium because you can be as hard as you want on them, and even if you break them, they still work!  Grab some plain white paper and a bunch of different crayons and tell your child to draw angry.  He can be as hard as he wants, scribble, whatever drawing angry means to him.  Now tell him to draw sad, and happy and all sorts of other emotions.  When he is done, take a look at the finished product!  You can even do it with him, with your own sheet of paper.

It is hard to see your child so angry; you want just to fix it and tell them it will be ok.  But that is not validating how they are feeling, and not teaching them healthy ways to find outlets for their anger.  Anyone’s instinct can be to throw things, yell or even break things and maybe even hit other people.  It is our job as parents to teach our children none of those things are healthy ways to deal with anger and give them other options.  Who knows, you might learn something too!  I have learned that cleaning or coloring with my daughter helps to alleviate my anger.

What creative ways have you found as creative outlets for your child’s anger?  Share with us in the comment section below!