엄마만 찾는 아이, 애착의 의미

What does “오냐오냐하다” mean in Korean?

A psychologist recounts a mother whose toddler cries and clings only to her — and the people around her blame her for it: “오냐오냐 하고 받아주니까 너한테만 그러는 거야,” they say, “you’re spoiling him, so he only acts up for you.” 오냐오냐하다 doubles 오냐 — the old-fashioned “yes” an elder uses to answer someone younger — into a word specifically for indulging a child’s whining until they take it for granted.

The scolding turns out to be backwards: the clip’s psychologist reassures the mother that a child who runs to her, and calms for no one else, simply means she’s his most trusted attachment figure — not that she has spoiled him. 오냐오냐 shows up constantly in Korean parenting talk, almost always with a note of “you’re making a rod for your own back.”