Stop Calling Children “Defiant”
It’s a harmful, inaccurate label that often stigmatizes developmentally and situationally appropriate behaviour
“Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told. Obedience is doing what is told regardless of what is right.”
— H.L. Mencken
I’m oppositional. If you tell me to do something, I will likely do the exact opposite, just because I can. And if you tell me I can’t do something, I will do everything in my power to prove you wrong.
I’m stubborn AF.
This can be both a blessing and a curse, I am driven and passionate, but as a child it was mostly a curse. I was labelled “defiant” and told I had an “attitude problem” — yeah, so what?
Except I wasn’t and I didn’t. Or, I did, but that wasn’t the whole picture.
What I actually had was trauma, anxiety, academic boredom, poor social skills, and undiagnosed ADHD.
I was bullied while teachers and other adults stood idly by, then those very same teachers turned around and lectured me about my attitude, knowing full well they had done absolutely nothing to intervene.
