My 7 year old says sorry a lot over very minor things. One example would be earlier we were doing a craft kit together. She hadn't properly listened to an instruction so one bit went a bit wrong. I didn't say much initially as I was looking at it trying to work out how best to help her resolve it. I don't know if she took this as my disapproval as she said "Oh I'm so, so sorry mummy." I reassured her it was fine and I was just trying to see how to fix it. Or yesterday she slipped over in some mud wearing some new tights and she was apologising that they were all mucky. Again, I reassured her it wasn't a problem. There's probably one or two examples like this every day where she apologizes for really minor things as if she has done something much bigger.
I'm now really questioning my parenting, and wandering if I have somehow made her overly critical of herself. I really don't feel like we are particularly critical of her. Like any parent I occasionally get frustrated at her and sometimes I express my frustration unfairly but I do always try really hard to apologize and explain if my behaviour wasn't right. The only time I can really think that we have pushed her to say sorry was a couple of years ago she had a phase of if she accidentally hurt someone she would say "It was an accident" so we would always say "even if it's an accident it's kind to say sorry" so I don't know if that has gone into her subconscious somehow?
I guess I am just worried we have somehow knocked her self confidence or made her feel like she always has to feel bad about really tiny things. Do other people's children do this? The only stuff I can find is about children who won't apologize!