Kids of all ages get similar mixed messages. Parents will say you're a bad boy when they mean the behaviour is bad.
No one is perfect an no one had a perfect up bringing. The past is good to know but of no use to dwell on if it doesn't advance our interest in the now or future. It wasn't true in the past... it's not true now and it's not true for the future that you are not a human being. It's just the way things are expressed. We take the language literally and yet our communication via words in chats and forums we can see it's easy to be misunderstood.
Alex
