That’s such a hard thing to hear when you’re struggling.

One of the hardest things about being a parent is that you can unintentionally mess your kid up for life doing something that you consider insanely banal. A one-off comment you made once when your kid was 14 can hurt them so badly that they’ll have to get therapy for years to recover from the emotional pain of it. Of course, that’s an extreme case, but you rarely know as a parent how much your words stick with your kids. Some kids never tell their parents how much they hurt their feelings, even when they’re adults and have moved on. Sometimes it’s best just to accept the hurt and move on, because bringing up old scars makes everyone involved hurt even more. 

It’s common for a teenager to bite their tongue when their parents’ behavior hurts their feelings, but young kids tend to be more honest, for better or for worse. Out of the mouths of babes comes the brutal truth, and it’s often a truth parents struggle to accept. It can be hurtful when your little boy says, «I love cuddling with mommy because she’s big and soft,» but you should take such an innocent comment as just that instead of seeing it as a veiled insult. If a kid is hurting emotionally because their parents are hurting, this hurt will be more obvious when they’re young and are more willing to articulate their feelings without the fear of hurting their parents’ feelings.