Communicating your feelings is different than making your child feel like he or she caused your feelings. Consider these statements: “It makes me happy when you clean up your toys”; “It makes me sad when you hit.” Phrases like these give tiny humans power over our feelings. What a big responsibility that is. What’s your goal here? Is it to get them to clean up their toys? Let’s try, “Thanks for cleaning up your toys. It’s comfortable to walk through the house without stepping on them.”
