During vacation I sat out under the stars with my sister, keeping her company and talking as we kept observing shooting stars.

We discovered that the neighbor has a skunk living under under his trailer. Well, maybe not living, but it sure got under their easily. So I can only assume that it has gotten under their before.

We discovered that we are all gaslighting my nephew.

She was telling me about this behavior where she will respond to him and he will respond with “so… blah blah blah some twisted alternative to what she said…” and the she responds with ”that’s not what I said” and it goes back and forth like that… and she’s sitting there trying to figure out where that comes from.

And then it hits me like a ton of bricks. We all do that same thing to him.

He is insistent on doing something and we tell him the consequences for doing said thing. And he expresses that he’s still going to do said thing so we respond with “Oh, so you want to …blab blah blah… consequences for doing said thing.” and he responds with “that’s not what I said” She was like OMG he probably feels like I’m gas lighting him, because that’s what it feels like when he does it.

The perfect example of how kids emulate behavior. And if we are observant or self aware enough, we can see exactly how they reflect the behaviors of our own that we dislike the most about ourselves.

What we do with that knowledge is the real test.