If your child seems to melt down over the smallest things, or fights you even on stuff they actually want to do, you're not imagining it — and you're not doing something wrong. In this post, I talk about Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA): what it really looks like, why the usual parenting advice tends to make things worse, not better, and what actually helps kids (and the parents raising them) feel safer, calmer, and more connected.