"I'm not gonna be your friend anymore!"

[OnionPatch]

This is what my four-year-old yells at me often when I give her a timeout or reprimand her for anything. (All the rest of the time she's telling me how much she loves me and how I'm her best friend.)

I usually respond with, "Well that makes me sad and I hope you'll change your mind, but you still can't______." or "No, you don't, you're just mad at me right now." Sometimes I just ignore it altogether.

I'm never quite sure, though, if my response is good or not. What is your response to this type of thing?

[Chalco]

1. I ignored that type of stuff. nt

[wildeyed]

2. I usually go with ignoring.

My four year old is still gonna be my friend 'cause I can drive, cook and know where the treats are kept. At the end of the day, she knows which side her bread is buttered on. She is just trying to get a rise out of me.

[amandae]

3. I would ignore it also

What's worse is when they're older and start saying it to other people. I watched my neighbor's kids (both 10 - boy/girl twins) for a short time and this was constantly coming out of the boy's mouth. After this I started hearing my 7-year-old say it to her 4-year-old sister. I tell her how inappropriate it is to say things like that and ask her if it would hurt her feelings to hear it from her sister. The answer is always "yes." But lately my 7-year-old is acting about as old as my 2-year-old so not too much is getting through to her ...

[trotsky]

4. I usually say things like you said.

"I'm sorry you're angry right now, but that's not going to change what happened." Etc.

Acknowledge their emotion, and move on. If they don't get a rise out of you, you win.

[detroitguy]

5. Sometimes...

...actually, often, parents just can't be a "friend." At that age, it's hard to know what to say. But I once told my kid that it was my job to try to help him learn things, even when it made him mad. Not sure it got through. But I was trying to find a way to tell him that I was on his side and doing what I thought was best for him.

[Ian David]

6. One morning my daughter woke-up screaming and wouldn't go near me

I went to get her out of her crib, and she was screaming, "No Daddy! I want Mommy! No! No! No!"

About half an hour later, my wife finally got her calmed down.

And then we found out what the problem was.

"Daddy ate-up all my pop-tarts and now they're all gone!"

Well, that explained it.

She'd had a nightmare about me eating all her pop-tarts.

She's finally starting to understand a little better about things like dreams.

Oh, and she finally forgave me about the pop-tarts.