I have this very bad habit of getting flustered while someone is trying to either apologize to me or pay me a compliment. I tend to brush them off and say something like, "Oh, it's not problem" or "it's okay!" Usually this isn't a huge issue, but sometimes this happens when I should be serious about the apology and try to make a point.
Example:
I was teaching in a pre-k classroom. One of my students was four, but he acted very much like a 2 or 3 year old. One day, he was playing with toys he shouldn't have been touching (as per the classroom rules that he was well aware of). I informed him of the rules and told him to put the toys back. He ran away from me, clutching the toy. It progressed to the point where he flipped the bird in my direction (he wasn't ballsy enough to flip me off directly, and instead flipped off the empty air next to me).
Later, when his father came to pick him up, I told him about what happened. The father chastised the little boy, who of course started to cry, and the father said he'd talk to him about it. Now, here's where my bad habit comes in: instead of saying, "Thank you for taking this seriously" or something else appropriate, I immediately backpedaled like a doofus and spouted off things like, "Don't worry about it" and "It's alright."
I hope the father still talked to the boy about it even though I (stupidly) acted like it wasn't a big deal.
I really need to teach myself not to do this kind of crap.
Sometimes Being Humble is a Pain
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