When you can sense that tension is running high (does any parent of young children ever get a full minute to sit down?) and stress is tangible (did you know that kids leave a trail of all sorts of stuff behind them wherever they go?) and emotions are hot to the touch (two- and three-year-olds are not the only ones with reactionary impulses! (is that redundant?))  one of the most helpful things we can do to help ourselves as the adults in the room is to resist opening the floodgates