I often tease friends and family members when I catch them talking to themselves if they are answering themselves too. Everyone talks to themselves with little awareness of it. Self-talk is automatic and carried out repeatedly through the waking hours. Hidden behind parents self-talk are their thoughts which are rational and irrational. Rational thoughts create positive, realistic feelings and behaviors.
Irrational thoughts create negative, unrealistic feelings and behaviors.
Most parents assume that events around them produce these feelings. The reality is that events cannot make you feel anything. Situations can be stressful but they cannot dictate our emotions. Regardless of whether children should be running around the store, attitudes determine parents emotional and behavioral reactions. These thoughts get expressed in our self-talk which, in turn, reinforce our thinking.