"Close your eyes. What's your body telling you it needs?"

I originally posted this on r/nanny, but was asked by a parent on there post it here as well. I'm the nanny for 5f and 8m. (I feel like I should add that despite there being a nanny hand-off to babysitter mentioned here, it is not the norm and their parents are super involved, loving, amazing people. The nanny hand-off to babysitter happens at most once a week so that both parents can do something without kids to help them stay sane.)...5f was getting increasingly grumpy, expressively jealous (for really no reason), and bordering on agressive. It was 5, I was off but doing writeup, babysitter was there, but seemed uncertain about how to handle it or if it needed handling. I called her over.me: you seem to be using more and more grumpy words right now. Can you close your eyes and find out what your body's telling you it needs?her: (after a pause) it's saying I need someone to draw me a perfect picture of Anna and Elsa and snowflakes. (I'd printed off connect the dots for them, Elsa for her and snowflakes for 8m, she had been saying meaner things to her brother and in general when she couldn't make her Elsa perfect and was refusing help.)me: That's a want, and totally makes sense. Can you try again? Close your eyes, take a deep breath. What's your body asking for?her: (closes eyes for a few seconds) It wants food.me: Ah! We can do something about that. I can get you a cup of milk.her: it wants solid foodme: Oh, but it's very close to dinner and [babysitter] is in charge, but I can get you a cup of milk and we can see if that helps.She drank it, her attitude completely shifted within the 5minutes it took me to get out the door.​We've been attempting self reflective exercises like this for a LONG time and she's starting to actually follow through on them and use them to her advantage. I'm so glad/proud because it's things like this that will help her in school. 8m is dabbling a little bit as well, not consistently and he won't always express what the exercise has asked for, but he's starting to do them. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2MJMcKD