lurkitty

We were in a restaurant with my nephews, Huey and Duey, lively little boys. Huey starts to stand and bounce on the chair. His mother, Daisy, says, "Don't do that, Huey!"
Now, as a psychologist, I learned that the brain does not process statements in the negative well. It much prefers positive statement. I'm not referring to a value judgement of the message here, just whether the sentence is stated in the positive or negative.
(I'd have thought Daisy, having a psy D. would know this, too). And I also learned that, in or order to extinguish an unwanted behavior, one must state the intended behavior as well.
After she said that, I started saying, "Huey, sit!" telling him the positive message what to do. After I said it a couple of time, another sister, Maisy (who may be lurking here) pipes up and says, "He's not a dog!" I realized too late what I was doing.

Probably good that I didn't have kids. They'd be chained up in the yard with water dishes....