They are watching and listening...More than you think
A few years back there was a series of commercials for chewy granola bars that put children in situations where they repeated things there parents said, thing there parents did not want repeated. As a parent of three boys, I can sympathize (as I am sure all parents can). I learned to watch very closely the things I said in front of my kids when they were very little but as they grew older I became a little less guarded (a big mistake) or would only say things when I thought they were out of ear shot (another mistake). Recently my middle son seems to have developed supersonic selective hearing as he can hear me say cookies in the quietest of voices but if I yell his name for five minutes, he will claim he didn't hear. Another thing I learned early in my years as a parent is the extent to which children will mimic adult behaviors, behaviors I wasn't even aware that I was demonstrating until my children did them. One such behavior is the habit of telling myself I am stupid wh