Ming from Agents of Speech explains why kids hit their parents: frustration release. When children fail at a task, they instinctively hit or pinch the parent as the "weakest link" for brief relief. Parents can interrupt the pattern by observing interactions and stepping in early.
The second reason of why children will hit is exactly frustration release. And they're used to it. So a lot of times, like when I work with parents in real life, I want the mom or dad to sit inside the room with me and watch me work. And that might be a stress for me and the kid. I don't care. But what happens is, when the child fails at something, the instinctual thing is to go up to the mom and pinch and hit her. And that's just because that's the weakest link. And there might be a site, a slight sense of relief from doing that. And that's why we have to prevent that. All right.
