Regulation Starts With You: How Wild Sprouts Supports Parents, Too
Regulation starts with you. When you move, breathe, and reset, your child learns to do the same. Wild Sprouts gives families a playful way to move through emotions, together.
Regulation Starts With You: How Wild Sprouts Supports Parents, Too
It’s not just your kids who need support. You do, too.
Let’s be real for a second — parenting is beautiful and exhausting, joyful and overwhelming, all in the same breath. You're constantly meeting everyone else's needs, navigating meltdowns, managing the mental load… And somehow supposed to “stay calm” through it all?
Yeah. No pressure, right? But here’s the truth no one says enough: Your nervous system matters just as much as your child’s. In fact, it might just be the most powerful tool your child has for learning how to regulate their emotions.
Your Calm Is Contagious
When your nervous system is grounded, your child feels it. Even if they’re mid-meltdown. Even if you haven’t said a word. That steady presence — the one that says, “You’re safe here, even with your big feelings” — helps their overwhelmed system begin to settle. This is called co-regulation, and it’s the foundation of emotional safety. That’s why Wild Sprouts isn’t just for little ones. These simple, movement-based tools are for you, too.
Why Regulation Is for Grown-Ups, Too
Wild Sprouts uses somatic movement (think: gentle, body-based practices) to help shift your nervous system out of fight, flight, or freeze — and into a calmer, more regulated state. It’s science-backed. It’s quick. And it’s surprisingly effective.
Here’s why: Emotions are physical experiences that move through the body. If left uninterrupted, a single emotional response typically lasts only about 90 seconds. But when we resist or suppress what we’re feeling, that emotional energy can get stuck — leading to longer-lasting stress, tension, or reactivity.
That’s where movement comes in. When you engage your body, you help the emotion complete its natural cycle — making it easier to release, reset, and return to calm.
Read more about the 90-second emotion cycle here.
Whether you’re:
Feeling overstimulated after a long day
Snapping more than you’d like
Navigating a child’s meltdown with shaky patience
Just needing a moment to reset before dinner…
Wild Sprouts gives you permission to pause, move, and breathe — so you can respond instead of react.
Try These Grown-Up Favorites
Need a go-to move to get back to calm? Start here:
🐶 Puppy Shake — Shake out your arms, legs, and whole body. A quick way to release anxious or pent-up energy.
🦍 Gorilla Tap — Gently tap your chest, arms, and legs with your hands (open or in a soft fist). Great for moving through frustration and getting grounded fast.
🦋 Butterfly Hug — Cross your arms over your chest and tap gently, left and right. Feels like a reset button when you need calm, fast.
✨ Quick Reset Flow — String together 2–3 movements in a quiet space to end your day, transition between tasks, or move through a tough moment.
These aren’t just cute kid moves — they’re regulation tools that work for grown-up nervous systems, too.
It’s Not About Perfection — It’s About Presence
You’re not going to stay calm 100% of the time. That’s not the goal.
But building awareness of your own regulation — and using simple tools like Wild Sprouts to support yourself — changes the game.
Because when you’re grounded, you can:
Respond (not react) to your child’s big emotions
Show them what healthy emotional expression looks like
Model calm, compassionate self-regulation
Create a home where all feelings are safe and welcome
And maybe most important? You feel better, too.
💬 As this blog from A Little Counseling beautifully says:
“My job as a parent is not to control my child’s emotions, my job as a parent is to control my own.”
Parenting With Your Body, Not Just Your Brain
So much of modern parenting advice is about what to say to your kids. But sometimes? What they need most is your energy — your grounded body, your steady rhythm, your soft breath.
Wild Sprouts gives you a way to connect with your child without saying a word.
It helps you meet them where they are. While also meeting yourself with compassion and care.
Your Regulation Matters — Every Day
You don’t have to do this perfectly. You just need a few simple tools to support yourself — because your nervous system is part of the story, too. And when you model that care? Your child learns that big emotions are okay. That taking care of yourself is normal. That connection doesn’t come from controlling the feeling — it comes from moving through it, together.
“I started doing Puppy Shake for myself when I felt overwhelmed — and now my son joins in without me even asking. It’s become our little reset ritual. I feel more grounded, and I love the connection it’s created between us.”
Use Wild Sprouts for You — Not Just for Them
Whether you’re deep in the toddler trenches or navigating the big-kid years, Wild Sprouts offers a grounded way to care for yourself while caring for your child.
✨ Explore Wild Sprouts — and start using it as a daily reset for your whole family.
This isn’t just a kids’ resource. It’s a family regulation toolkit — playful enough for little ones, powerful enough for you.
