Validation

Justin has been working really hard on validating my feelings. He learned the concept during education week this year and learned a trick - to repeat the "feeling" work that I used in his validating response.

As you might expect, he's taken this a little bit far. He validates everything I say, feelings or not, and uses my exact words back at me. Today, when I told him that I saw a gray kitty in some autumn leaves that I thought was really cute he said, "I'm sure it was really cute." Later, when I told him that I don't like to have a full email inbox he said, "Good for you, for not liking to have a full email inbox."

Now, we are working on validating feelings only, and doing it in a more inconspicuous way. I asked him to try saying something simple like "I bet it was" or "Sounds like it." Shortly thereafter he said "What was that line you told me to say again?"

We're still working on it :)