Mom asked young son to complete ‘toxic phrases’ — the response was not at all what she was expecting

Many people hear things from their parents that aren't exactly pleasant, or are even downright hurtful. Some parents get a chance to change things for their kids and break the generational cycles, instead of normalizing "toxic" phrases. A mom asked her son to complete common "toxic" phrases used by parents. The little boy's reply to each phrase left the woman shocked and gave her an insight into how things were different for her son. The mom and mental health activist, Anna Muller, who goes by @annakristinam on Instagram, shared her son's responses with the platform.

"Seeing how my son finishes toxic parenting phrases," the text overlay of the video read. "Kids should be seen..." Muller began and her son completed it by saying, "...at school." Originally, the phrase is, "Kids should be seen, not heard." The next phrase was, "I'll give you something to cry about." The mom said, "I'll give you something to..." and the boy finished it with, "...eat with." The mom confirmed if he meant like giving the person cutlery to eat with and the boy agreed with that. The woman continued, "I brought you into this world..." and the son added, "...to have a great life." Muller kissed her son's cheek and told him that he was right and that is why she had brought him into this world. The "toxic" version is, "I brought you into this world, I can take you out."

"I love you, but..." the mom remarked and the kid was completely confused. He didn't know what to say next or how to use that in a sentence. "I don't know," the boy said after looking at his mom for a few moments. "Yeah, that is crazy to say, huh. You don't say 'but' after that," Muller agreed. "Why don't you just..." The boy quickly responded, "...be you." The woman was impressed with the responses and told the boy, "You are good at this, buddy." The son also replied "...be friends" to the sentence, "You need to..." Both girls and boys "should be nice," according to the boy. Muller thought that the boy did a good job with the phrases. The caption read, "I was shocked at his answers."

Many people shared their thoughts on the way the boy positively completed the phrases in the comments section of the video. @courtneyhawk87 wrote, "Isn’t it healing a little to realize your kids have a more positive inner voice because you chose not to use the same words thrown at you?" @zoe_samson_ commented, "This generation of parenting warms my heart. I love how stumped he was at the 'I love you but...' These kids are growing up surrounded by so much compassion and love."

@thisisbensilver remarked, "Someone once told me 'We’re the generation of cursebreakers' and I think about it constantly." @1littlekat shared, "OMG, crying at 'have a great life' and the utter confusion with 'but' in an 'I love you' sentence. What a kind and amazing man he is growing into." @matildesofiabenozzo expressed, "Everyone saying this generation 'went soft' with the parenting, when they just don’t tolerate abuse, whether verbal, emotional and most definitely physical, masked as parenting. This is so beautiful!"

You can follow Anna Muller (@annakristinam) on Instagram for more parenting content.