📰 Must read: Why Letting Your Child Mess Up Might Be the Best Thing You Do

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We spend so much energy trying to prevent our kids from failing. We remind, warn, and hover. Because when you're raising a highly sensitive child, you know exactly how hard they take setbacks. The tears will be bigger, shame will cut deeper, and recovery will take longer than it does for other kids.

So you pack the sweater they refused to wear. You rush the forgotten homework to school because you can't bear the thought of them facing their teacher's disappointment.

But sometimes we do have to let them make mistakes.

Natural consequences are what happens naturally when we make a choice, without anyone else stepping in to create a punishment or lesson. Your child refused a sweater? They get cold. They leave their favorite toy outside? It gets rained on.

These aren't punishments we impose. They're just... what happens. And they carry their own built-in lesson without lectures, threats, or power struggles.

Here's what using natural consequences doesn't mean: standing back silently while your child walks into an avoidable situation without any guidance.

Kids, especially younger ones, often can't predict what's going to happen. Their brains are still developing cause-and-effect thinking. So part of our job is to teach them how to think ahead.

"Hey, it's going to be a little chilly today. You might want to bring a sweater."

You're giving them information. You're helping them build their prediction skills. You're being the empathetic guide they need.

But you let them make the choice.

If they insist it'll be fine and refuse the sweater, that's when you step back. The natural consequence is that they chose not to listen to the warning, and now they're cold.

You're still teaching and supporting. You're just letting their choice carry its own weight.

Natural consequences work best when:

Don't use natural consequences when safety is at risk, when the consequence is too big for their developmental stage, or when they're already in a dysregulated state and can't process the lesson.

This week's blog post walks you through exactly when to step back, how to support them through the hard feelings, and what to say when every instinct screams at you to rescue them.

👉 Read the full post here: Why Letting Your Child Mess Up Might Be the Best Thing You Do

With Halloween tomorrow, here’s a fun way to skip the candy battles before they even start: try a “Magic Candy Trade-In.” After trick-or-treating, let your child swap a handful (or two) of candy for special experiences—like picking the family movie, choosing a special dinner, or earning a small treat like new bath crayons.

It turns their candy haul into a game of smart choices, helps highly sensitive kids practice decision-making and delayed gratification, and keeps the focus on fun instead of sugar showdowns.

Alyssa Blask Campbell, author of one of our all-time favorite parenting books, Tiny Humans, Big Emotions, is back with Big Kids, Bigger Feelings, a guide for parents of 5–12-year-olds who still have (very) big emotions.

This new book gives parents a roadmap for helping kids handle anger, sadness, friendship drama, and big life changes with emotional intelligence and self-awareness.

We’re so excited to dig into this new release. Alyssa's insights always feel like that deep breath you didn’t know you needed, and her mix of warmth and real-world wisdom makes every parent feel a little more capable.

👉 Add Big Kids, Bigger Feelings to your bookshelf

1) 1:1 Coaching - Get 50% off 1:1 coaching to finally create a plan that actually works for YOUR highly sensitive child and YOUR specific triggers.

2) The Calm Mama Meltdown Method - Transform how you respond to meltdowns, repair your relationship with your child, and become the parent you always wanted to be.