Adult too soon (the parentified child)

The parentified child often played the role of parent to her own parents.  Becoming "adult too soon", and bearing more responsibility for an adult's well-being than she could actually carry. This experience can create belief patterns and behaviors that we can carry into adulthood. It's not easy to see this happening as it's such a pervasive experience; but knowing about it helps us understand experiences we had, why we may continue to struggle, and how we can avoid re-creating this dynamic with our kids. 

Om Podcasten

Parenting can lead us to a threshold in life we hadn’t known before. We're bringing into the parenting dynamic with our kids the momentum of our previous experiences - our resources and resilience, as well as our disconnection and disembodiment due to trauma (individual, familial, cultural, historical & intergenerational).  Beyond the challenges we face to parent in ways we may not have been parented, there is a deep love for our children that wants to be expressed and known in presence with them. There's also a yearning in us to experience that deep love ourselves; to feel our power and to live authentically, just as we yearn to protect that for our kids, too. The urgency to heal what's still alive within us might come up with a force because of them, and yet it's ultimately a reclamation of our life force, vitality, joy, connection and creativity we're most hungry for. It’s sometimes a desire bold as love that fuels our courage to meet what we fear to face.