>>>>Reminds me of one of my daughters. If someone said that to her, she'd cry. So I played a game with her. I'd insult her and she had to insult back. This strengthened her, so she did not cry anymore. Those who enable continued weakness should do their friends a real favor and help them grow a spine.
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>>>I assume you also learned her some other strategies to cope with insults and the like. Afterall, if the sole reaction to getting insulted is to insult back, then this will at times be the start of serious fights, eventually involving groups (e.g. opposing families).
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>>>And how about the role of parents and of teachers at school, for example? If their sole role is to learn the child to insult back, then something is really wrong there. It is true that the current practice in schools in the Netherlands is to learn the teased child to be more assertive, but there is also a program to learn the other children to not tease.
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>>Peter, Why do you conclude that he was teaching her to return insults with insults?
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>>My take was that he used that technique simply to teach her that insults are just words, not worth crying about.
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>Hmm, I guess Mike can shed some light here.

Jim Nelson hit the nail squarely on the head. It's called desensitization. I cannot teach others how to behave, but I can teach my daughter to be strong.