The only downside to talking to small children like theyâre normal people and treating them like normal people (as per my mom) is that as they develop into bigger children they are viscerally aware of every single moment in which they are pandered to like stupid little accessories (as per my dad, my teacher, the special ed aide, every adult in my middle school) and you end up getting a lot of phone calls from people reporting your kid for (checks notes) âundermining authorityâ, âdisrupting the classroom environmentâ, âdisobeying elder peersâ, and âunionizing the grade eleven gym class with intent to incite a mutinyâ (as per me) and you end up with a Grown Adult who will absolutely encourage and enable other peopleâs children to fuck the sustem
Anyhow the most empowering shit you can say to a kid in my experience has to be
âWow that adult was being a jerkâ
âThat sounds really frustratingâ
âGood job handling that, I would have lost my mindâ
âItâs cool, I donât expect you to remember meâ
âYou donât have to hug me if you donât want toâ
âYeah sometimes (authority figure you canât avoid) doesnât know what theyâre talking about, itâs not your fault, just do your bestâ
âI donât totally understand what you mean but I get that youâre upset, is there anything I can do?â
âWanna go yell and break stuff with me?â
âYou donât need to be friends with that kid as long as you can still be politeâ
âIf an adult tells you to do something that will get you hurt, you donât have to listen.â
âMy number one goal is to keep you safe, but I donât know everything and sometimes Iâm wrong, so let me know if I make a mistake.â
âMan. Today sucked.â
âYeah I also kinda wanna cry right nowâ
âWhoops, yeah, my badâ
âI donât know the answer to that but we can probably figure it outâ
















