Dear Queenie,
My mother often asks my father what he thinks about something, like what color clothes look good on her, and then she does just the opposite, like if he says she looks good in blue she will get something red or yellow. And she does the same thing with me – whatever I ask for she will get something else.
Queenie, why does she ask if she isn’t going to listen to us?—Disgusted daughter
Dear Daughter,
This kind of behaviour is called “passive aggression”. It is a way of showing that one disagrees without being obvious – or openly hostile – about it.
