When a parent provides continuous commentary on the behavior of a child, there are several common outcomes. One, the child becomes stressed over such constant scrutiny, two, the child feeling overloaded begins to tune out the parent and or three, the child becomes dependent on the constant feedback and doesn’t function well without it. None of these outcomes help support healthy emotional growth.
Make an “economy of words” your goal. Instead of making a statement like, “we don’t have time to go to the playground today” then adding lots of reasons why, filling in all the blanks about how your child might feel about it, then adding a lengthy apology, just state a simple version of the fact and let it be. Give your child space to process and ask questions. However, in answering them, keep it simple. This approach is harder than it looks
