Recently I met someone that said when people are feeling upset or sad all they need to hear is that it’s okay and that they’re okay.  I thought to myself it can’t be that simple otherwise everyone would be happy.  Yesterday Melodie had a bad day at school and was put in time out for 10 minutes and when I picked her up after work I could tell something was bothering her.  Trying to talk to Melodie when something is bothering her is not that easy and most of the time she will just look at you and not say anything, get upset and cry if you ask her too much or just says I don’t know.  I left her alone in the car and let her be.  When we got home she continued the pattern of bad behavior and I felt myself getting upset more and more internally.  She was acting like this with both me and Lillian and I knew I had to do something.  I approached her before it was bedtime and started asking her questions and like always I got the sequence of blank stare, crying and I don’t know.  She started crying hysterically and clearly something was bothering her.  I thought what the heck let me try the ‘It’s Okay, You’re Okay’ technique, what is the worst thing that can happen she just continues to cry.  I gave her a big hug and looked her in the eye and told her, ‘I know you are upset but it’s okay and you’re okay’.  It was almost like a light bulb turned on in her head and she looked at me calming down and asked me ‘I’m okay?”  I don’t know if she was hyping herself up because she knew she did something bad and maybe she thought I was so upset with her.  She calmed down and talked to me and told me what was bothering her.  She felt so at peace after she told me what was bothering her and before I started reading stories I gave both Melodie and Lillian a hug and a kiss and told them:

It’s Okay, You’re Okay