Question
Hi gurus,
My almost-4-year-old girl has started saying she's a "bad kid" and crying "don't you love me?" or "you don't like me?" etc. Sometimes this is response to me or my husband having spoken sternly to her - the first couple times she said it I hugged her and kissed her and told her of course I love her, etc; but now I give her a neutral "You know I love you. I don't want you to say that anymore. You still have to (whatever I'd said)." Sometimes it's from nothing at all - for instance, she mournfully asked my husband if she was a "bad girl" for pulling the toilet paper down too fast, and told me she "didn't have a good heart" because sometimes she yelled at her friends. We have never once told her she was bad, or that she was being bad, and we're a very demonstrative family. Is this a phase? A play for attention? Or real fears that need addressing? Thanks very much!!
