I’ll start with a bold statement. Being a parent above being your own person is toxic. Not just for yourself, but for the child also. It puts responsibility on ‘your’ child to always be yours, to identify themselves through who you are and it limits them from becoming their own person.
If you give love without expectations, you will get a higher return on your investment than if you keep a record of what you gave, how you’ve given it and what you’re entitled to in response to the parental sacrifice.
Expectations vary from wanting your child to be straight, average or excellent, get a mortgage by the time they’re thirty, marry, eat meat, be not too fat and not too skinny, to asking them to visit every Christmas or every weekend etc etc.
Understanding what your role as a parent is plays a great part in what your relationship with your child will be 5, 10, 20 years from now.
According to a study ran by two researchers from State University of New York at Albany, aged parents want a balance between care and freedom. Isn’t it interesting that this is what children wish for also?
Being a parent without being your own person will reflect on the adult child – aged parent dynamics in years to come. It is likely that the toxicity of the early relationship will lead to a controlling attitude on the part of the child-adult.
Wanting to take control over the life of the person who needs freedom, neither child nor the parent realise that they can’t function without overpowering one another.
Resources:
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