Empathy

Sometimes when Kirk is misbehaving he will try to lash out and tell me he doesn't like me or he'll try to hit me. It's a big problem. I have decided to not let him get away with being mean to people including me. I say things like, "it hurts peoples feelings when you say you don't like them", and he will usually concede the point and say he's sorry. The problem with using empathy as a tool with a three year old is they are smart enough to try to use it back. The other day when I was trying to get him into bed for a nap he kept running from me telling me I was making him sad. He said, "it hurts my feelings when you make me nap." Then when I tried to change his pants before said nap he started yelling and saying that I was hurting his other feelings.