After 24 years as a pediatrician, I thought I had seen almost everything. Last month, a mother brought her 5-year-old son for a checkup and immediately announced that they practiced “gentle parenting” and that I needed to respect his autonomy. Within minutes, the boy began deliberately spitting at me while his mother smiled and insisted, “He likes you.”
I calmly asked him to stop, but his mother became furious and accused me of traumatizing her child. She raised her voice so loudly that a nurse opened the door to check on us. Instead of arguing, I stayed calm and reached for the small handheld mirror I keep in my office for showing children their teeth.
