Archive for September, 2010

>On Tuesday, I had the honor and pleasure of guest lecturing at the University of Maryland Baltimore County to a group of 20 students taking a freshman psychology seminar on passive aggressive behavior and using The Angry Smile as their textbook.  The students shared great examples of passive aggression and asked insightful questions about how this behavior shows up in familes and relationships.

One student asked me about the best way to prevent passive aggressive behavior from occuring.  Complex child-rearing and developmental conditions aside, the answer I gave was relatively simple: 

When family members, relatives, partners, spouses, co-workers, bosses, teachers, and anyone else who interacts with an angry person make it clear that they are open and willing to receive that person’s anger–that their honest and direct expression of anger will be tolerated, accepted, and even honored for its honesty–they provide the kind of environment in which indirect, passive aggressive communication styles are unnecessary.  

A baby clothes boutique is supporting my efforts to educate parents and professionals by providing articles like this one and many more to the community. Check them out when you need to find that perfect outfit for your little one, they have it all baby headbands, baby shoes, baby hats, and everything in between.

>When Holly gets upset at her tribemate for talking badly about her, she needs to find a way to get her anger out. Giving sand to a city boy is her hidden revenge!

Check out this clip from Survivor: Nicaragua – Episode 2 for one of the Angriest Smile’s I’ve seen in a long time:

http://www.cbs.com/e/XAE7_DQSAkBqbmUigkGI6vGaEU7axJxv/cbs/1/

A baby clothes boutique is supporting my efforts to educate parents and professional by providing articles like this one and many more to the community. Check them out when you need to find that perfect outfit for your little one, they have it all baby headbands, baby shoes, baby hats, and everything in between.

>It’s season premiere week for the TV networks and what makes for better, more hilariously relatable comedy than passive aggression between spouses?  Check out this clip from ABC’s The Middle as Frankie guilts Mike into filling out school forms, when all he really wants to do is go to sleep.  Instead of getting mad or refusing to help, Mike uses the oldest passive aggressive trick in the book–Intentional Inefficiency–to get out of the chore.  

http://www.hulu.com/embed/zsoQor7tddUPgt1oM6O86Q

My Baby Clothes Boutique is partnering with me to provide articles, such as this one, to parents and professionals. Check them out whenever you need to find that perfect outfit for your little one. They have it all: adorable baby headbands, cute baby shoes, trendy baby hats, and everything in between!

>So, I’m reading the fantastic new book by Odd Girl Out author, Rachel Simmons, called The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence.  It is inspiring me, reasssuring me, and definitely making me want to blog about it here, as it discusses how young girls are socialized toward passive aggressive self-expression and away from authentic communication of their feelings.

Then, stopped in my feel-good tracks, I see this YouTube video:

What a riot…but what a fright as well!  I don’t wanna get all preachy–the humor of this type of video is so much more effective–but wow! 

Then again, who would role model herself after a girl whose waist in only 1/4 of the size of her head…

Simmons’ bookhttp://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=passivea0d-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=014311798X&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr is now even more true and important to me than it was even five minutes ago.  Must keep reading…need to see what she says about counteracting powerful, sugar-coated, toxic media messages…

A baby clothes boutique is supporting my efforts to educate parents and professional by providing articles like this one and many more to the community. Check them out when you need to find that perfect outfit for your little one, they have it all baby headbands, baby shoes, baby hats, and everything in between.