Here's The First Thing To Do If You Notice Your Kid Starting To Copy Your Worst Behaviors

NetflixI don't yet have kids, but here's one of my scariest parenting nightmares: By age eight, my kid will be a perpetually disorganized worrywart who freezes up at the sight of a division question on a standardized test. That is to say, I fear that my poor hypothetical child will get stuck with all my worst qualities and I won't be able to do anything about it. I recently asked Carl Pickhardt — a psychologist who's published multiple books about parenting, including, most recently, "Surviving Your Child's Adolescence" — about this potential scenario and he said, yes, parents have come to him with this complaint about their kids. But when they do, he tries immediately to reframe the situation — to steer the focus away from the kid and their frustrating behaviors to the parent and how they are with the kid. For example: Does the kid get upset easily, just like you do?