Her daughter was melting down. So she sat down on the floor.

A note from Nicole

Happy Monday. This week is about a word you may have heard in a therapy office or a parenting group: co-regulation. It sounds clinical, but it's something you already do every time you kneel down, slow your voice and stay close while your child falls apart. Little kids can't calm big feelings on their own yet. They borrow our calm first, and learn to make their own later.

This week's story

The tower fell at 5:40, right when dinner was almost ready.

Maya, who is three, had spent twenty minutes building it out of every block she owned. When the top piece slid off and took the rest with it, she screamed like the floor had opened up.

Her mom, Lena, was at the stove. Her first instinct was to call across the kitchen: "It's okay! You can build it again!" That made it worse. Maya threw a block. Then another.