Deepa Lodha's journey from chaos to calm.

My son's tantrums were legendary. He would scream in the supermarket, throw himself on the floor at home, and nothing seemed to work. I tried ignoring, distracting, bribing — and each time I felt more defeated and more judged by the people around me.

In the community, I learned that tantrums are not misbehavior. They are a child's way of saying, "I have big feelings and I don't know what to do with them." Pooja taught me to name emotions before fixing them. "You really wanted that toy. You feel sad." That simple sentence worked like magic.

For the first time, my son felt understood. He started using words instead of screams. And I started seeing myself as his guide, not his enemy. Shopping trips are still hard sometimes, but now we get through them together.