The problem with ‘unconditional positive regard’
If you're a parent and your child misbehaves in public, what do you do? If you're not a parent, and someone else's child misbehaves in public, what would you like the parents to do? Adults are predisposed to like children, and it comes as something of a surprise when they’re unaccountably brattish and unpleasant. When children behave badly in public, people dislike them. We know it's unreasonable, but most of us find public tantrums and rudeness irritating. If a child that's behaved badly goes unpunished or ignored, we reserve our indignation for their parents; why don't they do something? We finish [...]