That hurts my feelings …

I can’t even remember which parenting book or advice column first suggested that a great way to deal with feisty or defiant behavior is to tell your child directly and honestly how that makes you feel. So that means, while the little one is throwing a fit or yelling in your face, you calmly get down on one knee, make the Supernanny eye contact and say “that hurts my feelings.” Well, since we are always looking for new and improved ways to manage our Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde toddler, we quickly adopted the strategy. But what the article forgot to mention is how much three year olds like to mimic or adopt your behavior, and now this super-sneaky parenting trick is coming back to haunt us.

Typical phrases now coming out of Alex’s mouth include:

- That hurts my feelings to wear a jacket.
- That hurts my feelings to take a bath.
- That hurts my feelings to pick out only one pumpkin.
- That hurts my feelings to share with my sister.

I realize that according to Oprah being a “sensitive male” is all the rage, but I think we have created an emotionally (and linguistically) confused monster.