I told my son’s friend once that if he kept only eating processed crap food, he's gonna be the size of a house. He got a bit water-eyed and said I called him ‘future fat’. Same friend I told him the other day to ‘tie his shoes’, he said ‘no I'm good’…. I said, ‘if you fall on your face its not my fault’.
Could I have been mistakenly disciplining him? Sometimes other kids can be annoying and you snap a bit?
Like someone else said “coaching” where you offer guidance and explain likely consequence of their actions in a fairly passive way but still allow them to do something stupid if they’re really insistent is usually fine. To me “discipline” typically means actually punishing for an action, which is over the line if you aren’t there parent unless there’s actual violence. Such as if a kid hit my kid I am going to physically force them apart but afterwards we are just leaving and not coming back. I’m not punishing that other kid beyond a stern verbal warning not to ever do it again.
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