How Much Does Labeling Hurt?

How much does it hurt when parents or others unfairly label us? An acquaintance recently told about how, after her 13-year-old daughter broke her wrist playing sports, her Dad, who had taken her to the hospital, responded to her expressions of pain by telling her, “Don’t be a wimp.” Later, when Mom showed up, the daughter’s first words were not about her painful injury, but an outraged and accusatory: “He called me a wimp!”

The painful physical injury was insignificant compared with the emotional hurt of being unfairly labeled.

Dad probably meant well, but I can easily picture that girl in therapy, years from now, telling the therapist about how, when she broke her wrist, her dad told her not to be a wimp.

Posted in

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Join My Mailing List For The Latest News And Events

Hillary-Rettig-web-2

Greetings from Hillary!

Welcome! My goal is to help you recognize and overcome any disempowering forces in your work and life so that you can reclaim your joyful productivity and achieve your personal and professional goals more quickly and easily than you ever imagined! Thanks for checking out my site, and I always welcome your comments, suggestions, and questions at hillaryrettig@gmail.com.

Like my page on Facebook!
Follow me on Twitter!

The single best thing you can do to support me and my work is to review one of my books on Amazon or elsewhere. Thank you in advance!