A Quick Fix For Little Girls Who Are Already Saying “Sorry” A Lot
We say ‘sorry’ way, way too much — and it starts so early.
‘Sorry’ was a banned term at my college serving job. No, really. Curse all you want, but apologize, you must not. Why? Well, my coworkers were all women, and when you put a bunch of gals together, chances are, ‘sorry’ will quickly become your collective most-frequently used word.
Sorry, ladies, but we say ‘sorry’ way, way too much. Really, it’s true — studies have proven that we apologize more often than men, and the habit can start as early as childhood.
And, look, apologizing when you’ve caused another person harm is good, and we should absolutely teach kids not to be afraid to admit when they know they were in the wrong. But, we also want to avoid raising another generation of over-apologizing girls — because if you didn’t do anything wrong, you have nothing to apologize for!
But, how to do it? Well, Beck Goodman, a play-based early literacy specialist, shared a quick and easy fix to cut some of those unnecessary apologies out of our daughters’ vocabularies.
Goodman shared a TikTok, explaining what to do in scenarios where girls apologize for advocating for themselves, such as asking for more blocks to play with, or for mistakes, like mispronouncing a letter or drawing a “too pointy” heart.
“You know what? That was just a mistake,” she explained. “So you can say, ‘whoops!’”
Yup, whoops! It’s as simple as that — because mistakes are, well, simple!
Parents in the comments agreed that a little ‘whoops’ is usually just enough, and shared some other options, too.
“Yep! I’m on my daughter about always saying sorry. I encourage her to consider if whoops, excuse me, or thank you will work instead. Save sorry for genuine apologies,” one mom wrote.
However, most of the comments were made up of women sharing how they needed to hear this for themselves, or other adults in their lives.
“For some reason, this was so healing? i say sorry for literally everything and this is a nice reminder,” one user wrote.
“I have a female employee in her 20’s who says sorry all the time for little things and I want to tell her she needs to stop that because she’s allowed to exist and taken space,” said another.
I think it’s high time we gals all start using ‘whoops,’ how about you?
