"It's ok to disappoint people." has got to be MOST powerful, life changing advice I have ever heard.

If your gut reaction to this is "no it's not" I swear, I promise, that disappointing people, particularly disappointing people who have unrealistic, outdated, manipulative, or just plain wrong expectations of you, or versions of you in their head, is better than continually disappointing yourself. Signed, an inveterate people pleaser who FINALLY realized this and made my life almost immediately more authentic and fulfilling by acting upon it.

Anyway adults saying “I don’t know isn’t an answer” is part of the reason I learned to lie and bluff so well.

Really though, what was that about? I don’t know is a valid answer. It communicates very clearly that the child cannot answer your question, and therefore maybe needs more help understanding the question/situation. Why do you try and push them to give an answer they don’t have? That stresses them out and it makes them feel like they’re being punished for not knowing something.

i thought i was the only one with an “i don’t know” problem because my parents made it seem it was the strangest and also most horrible thing in the world. i genuinely didn’t know and they got angry and that only blocked my thoughts more which meant i didn’t know the answer to anything else.

THIS ^^^

Also “I don’t know” is a commonly used sentence for children with ADHD/Autism. We DON’T know why we can’t do our homework. We DON’T know why we can’t eat certain foods sometimes. We DON’T know why we forgot to do a chore. It’s really distressing when you genuinely don’t know and people think you’re just lying or indifferent

Me in 2026 practicing internet safety: who wants an updated list of my medications

W dog fr fr

@ominous-signs

Official ominous sign