The Independent - Zen and the art of bedtime: How we turned to meditation to stop the children's evening tantrums

The Independent online posted an article on 4th March 2014 in the  Life>Health & Families>Features section titled: Zen and the art of bedtime: How we turned to meditation to stop the children's evening tantrums.

Here are some key quotes:

"Bedtimes used to be a frantic battleground, marked by tantrums, sobbing and endless trips to the loo. Thankfully, all that changed the day I started slipping meditation into our bedtime routine. We started using Marneta Viegas's "Relax Kids" series – short, read-aloud meditation scripts that include journeys such as Alice in Wonderland and Jack and the Beanstalk (you can also buy CDs such as Christiane Kerr's Enchanting Meditation for Kids).
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... those 10 Zen minutes became an essential part of my daily routine.
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This ability not to get lost in your thoughts is well worth learning on the frontline of parenting. Like many people, I have a tendency to fight fire with fire, inflaming a situation with a flood of unnecessary junk. I learnt that it is profoundly unhelpful in the middle of a tantrum to be listening to an inner dialogue that says, "this is terrible; this is your fault". Meditation teaches us that we are not our thoughts. I learnt to breathe and not get lost in my projections. And I learnt that this moment will pass.
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"...meditating has gone on to help me in family life – and it has helped my children, too. I often use mindful breathing during time-out, as a way to help them recover from a meltdown, and I strongly suspect it has helped them develop their imaginations. I love the fact my children are learning that, within themselves, they have the inner tools to cope."