“I’m sorry that what I said to you made you so upset.” It was his standard apology for all things. “I hate his apology,” his son told me. “It bothers me and I don’t know why.” The son knew something didn’t feel right, but he wasn’t able to identify the mystifying nature of an apology that obfuscated what the dad was apologizing for, and who had the problem. He just knew that his dad’s apology left him feeling uncomfortable and off balance.
