Things Parents Should Not Say To Their Kids [Top 5]

I'll toss the football to Dylan five times and show him how to hold out his hands to catch it, but, no luck. I'll tell him over & over that hitting causes boo-boos so don't do it, yet it continues. The one thing not to say is "Don't you get it?" It's like saying, "What's wrong with you for not getting it?" While I do not mean to send that message, that is the message Dylan receives.

This is the one I spoke of earlier. After Dylan made his playmate cry, I could not understand why apologizing means nothing to him. I read that forcing a child to apologize does not teach him or her social skills. According to Bill Corbett, a parent educator, author, and producer/host of the parenting TV show "Creating Cooperative Kids." If you force a child to say they are sorry, "it could delay the child's natural acceptance" of apologizing.

Why is Dylan screaming every time a playmate wants his toy? Why is he spraying the tree with Febreze? I often hear a parent yell to a child. "Act your age!" Then is occurs to me that they are, in fact, acting their age.

My wife and I are guilty of this one. The car is packed and we're ready to go shopping and Dylan says he wants to stay home and play. We'll use that dreaded phrase and he panics. Perhaps it's because we're trying to send a message that we mean what we say. For a child Dylan's age, the fear of parental abandonment is very real. What we've just said though is obviously false. We'll never leave without him. Soon Dylan will learn that we don't mean what we say.

Dylan loves to share details. "Daddy look! I've got a green one and a red one!" "Mommy come see what I made out of clay!" Funny thing, when he is a teenager he'll tell us nothing. I've learned over the years what's small potatoes to me is a big deal to a child so go ahead, let them go on...and on.