Dealing With Difficult Parents
Dealing with Difficult Parents?
Are you dealing with difficult parents? If so, you’re normal. As a couples counselor and parent coach, I know that many, if not most, people in their twenties, thirties, and forties are still working through different aspects of their relationships with their parents. This doesn’t mean rehashing the past, but rather letting go of old, self-limiting baggage so that you can move forward into the life you design.
Though this work can be challenging, it can also be absolutely necessary for you to re-define your relationships with your family of origin as you grow into your happiest, healthiest, “best self.” Understanding how you relate/d to your family can also be profoundly important to understanding how you relate to your spouse and children.
Sometimes, this work involves healing and forgiving your parents for things that happened in the past. You may need to learn how to establish healthy adult relationships with your parents, as you create your own family, or you might need to set boundaries with your parents and release the responsibility and guilt you’re carrying.
How to Deal With Difficult Parents
Dealing with difficult parents is a lot, and for many, this type of work can feel “big” and overwhelming. So on this episode of the Love, Happiness and Success podcast, I’m going to be talking you through some really common “parent problems” that adults face, and give you some tips on how to resolve them successfully. This episode might be helpful to you if you have:
- Critical parents, judgmental parents, difficult parents, or (shiver) narcissistic parents.
- Intrusive parents, controlling parents, or generous parents who give gifts with strings attached.
- Parents who are a mess and emotionally or financially dependent on you.
- Unfinished emotional business with parents who have disappointed you or hurt you.
Yes, these are deep topics, but ones I know that so many of you can relate to. I hope that the advice I share here can help you not just create healthier and happier relationships with your parents, but can launch you on your own empowering journey of healing and personal growth.
May peace be with you,
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Dealing With Difficult Parents
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Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby is the founder and clinical director of Growing Self. She is a licensed psychologist, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and a board-certified coach, as well as the author of “Exaholics: Breaking Your Addiction to Your Ex Love,” and the host of The Love, Happiness & Success Podcast.
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