Editor’s Note:  Thank You, School Psyched, Your School Psychologist for sharing this article with us

[Source: Great Schools]

I never thought I’d be the kind of mom who forces her kid to apologize. And then the hitting started.

When he was around 2, my sweet, energetic boy began whumping his friends, his dad, and me. Sometimes the hits were born from excitement, but they were also often the angry result of being asked to do something he didn’t want to do — share, take a bath, get dressed. There’s nothing like the sound of your kid’s hand smacking another kid’s face — followed by the horrified reaction of the other kid’s mom — to drag your aspirational parenting style back down to earth. “Say you’re sorry,” has come out of my mouth much more often than I’d like. I try to intersperse this with other supposedly empathy-inspiring tactics like, “See that kid crying? Your hitting did that.” I’ve also tried not-so-subtly prodding, “Is there anything you want to say to him?”

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