You put it better than I could. She just gets it wrong but her intentions keep improving. Boy did she need better coaching for those phone calls. The worst of it was the "I'm calling because it's an exercise; I'm calling to apologize". Well, who would believe you're sorry and it's heartfelt if you start off by saying that it's an assigned exercise? It's true sweetie but you need to skip that part. You at least need to come to the conclusion that you made the call after fully realizing that you're sorry about something.

I think she misses a few cues like that because she just doesn't think them through. Okay, maybe it's a bit passive aggressive. After all it was an exercise about punishing other people.

More important was her threatening tone and words when talking to her mother. "YOU NEED TO REALIZE I'M NEVER GOING TO CHANGE" is not letting go or apologizing or anything worth calling home about. Kelly needs the $1.50 extending expanded lesson with practice in "I" messages versus "You" messages. The nickel version summary where you just refer to it as though she knows what you mean and then unleash her to the phone isn't going to cut it.

The sad part is that maybe that was a much kinder, gentler conversation than she had ever had with her mother.