Emotional Intelligence

I'm reading a book for my class called "Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child".  The author is John Gottman.  I was able to hear him speak at a seminar a few months ago and he is very good.  He has been studying family dynamics for well over 20 years.  The idea of raising a child that is in touch with their emotions and can truly cope with what comes their way in life is something all parents want, right?  Unfortunately, all of our good intentions are often clouded by the stuff that we had to deal with growing up too.  The main idea behind this book is to show your child empathy for what they are feeling, give it a label, and help them figure out how to solve the problem.  It seems easy enough!  So, we don't ask a ton of questions to try to figure out what's wrong- we make observations to the child and reflect back on what they are telling us.  We don't criticize a feeling as being unjustified, no matter how trivial it may seem, and we work together with the child to help them come to a healthy resolution to their problem.  This book concludes with a chapter on helping children of all ages (even infants) to become Emotionally Intelligent.  It's a pretty quick read, and very interesting!