There’s a new parenting trend making the rounds on social media: the #toxicphrase challenge. Parents begin the first half of a famously problematic parenting line—something like “I brought you into this world…”—and then ask their children to finish it. The idea is to test whether their kids have internalized the second half (“…and I can take you out of it!”) or, ideally, to hear their own, gentler rewrites of old-school scripts.

When I tried it with my kids, I got a few adorable answers that left me grinning. One said, “If you don’t stop crying… you’ll get really thirsty.” Another confidently said, “I’ll give you something to… play with.”

And my absolute favorite?

“Children should be seen and… cuddled.”

As a post-traumatic parent, I melted. Those responses felt like tiny, living proof that I’d managed to raise kind, emotionally safe kids—whose instincts were to expect kindness and support from a parent.

And yet… as sweet as the moment was, it also made me pause. Because I realized something: the reason I loved the challenge wasn’t just that my kids were cute or clever. It was because I was hoping they’d “pass.” Or was I hoping that I’d “pass?”

That’s the........

© Psychology Today