DD's snap response: "I take criticism well, except from my parents."
That has not always been our observation, but there's a ring of truth to it these days.
The other day, my DS7 did a small non-optimal thing just as I was picking him up from school. The other (several years older) child snapped a bit, but both were moving on - until DS noticed that I'd seen what happened. He then went into huge histrionics about how it wasn't a big deal and the other kid was ridiculous to even comment about it and on and on. Fortunately, the other kid had pretty much already tuned out on the issue and I was able to get the heck out of Dodge.
Later when DS calmed down and we were able to discuss, he asked with great exasperation, "Don't you realize I'm EMBARRASSED when you see me do something wrong?"
He is a kid who knows he is loved unconditionally. Possibly as a partial result - he's also a very internally motivated kid (which is good, I think). But I came to realize that one huge external driver for him is wanting his dad and me to be proud of him, and think he's doing well.
So there's that going on. Some sort of perfectionism tied up with wanting to make mom and dad happy. Could that be a factor for you?
