I do not know what to do or what to say back.

Every time, and I mean, EVERY TIME, I tell Mary to do something (like, change her clothes, go have breakfast, turn off the light in the bathroom, etc.) or reprimand her for interrupting a phone conversation with Gramma for no reason or admonish her for having her toys all over the living room, she answers back with,

“You don’t love me?”

Or a variation of it,

“You hate me?”

Now, where did this come from?

Must have heard it from one of her friends. Or, on TV, perhaps?

I have sat down with her a few times that nothing she does can every make me hate her and that the things I do is to keep her safe and make sure that she grows strong and healthy.  Her Dad had tried explaining things to her, too.

But, this is still her response to me.

Help! It’s driving me nuts— to the point that I sometimes say, “Yes, I hate that you are not listening to me and getting dressed.”  And of course this just escalates to “You hate ME? I’m telling Daddy!!!!!! You hate your own daughter?”

Oh, there’s another thing.  Like, when I am on the computer, finishing up a post and then, she comes along and wants to get on  pbdskids.org and I tell her to wait a couple of minutes, she then says,

“You care more about the computer than your own daughter?”

Now, what do you say to that?