What's a Parent's Role?

Take our Authoritative Parenting Test

Find a family therapist near me

Compassionate goals center on another person's needs and giving them care.

Self-image goals emphasize how we appear to someone else.

A new study looked at how compassionate and self-image goals relate to how parents and kids feel and act.

Compassionate goals were linked to greater wellness for parents and better behavior among kids.

Arguably, being a parent is the most challenging and important job a person can have; it's a position unlike any other. Needless to say, there’s no designated time you clock on and off the job, and you’re on call unceasingly. There are fervent societal views abound about how a parent is “supposed” to act, prompting the notion that parents must achieve perfection in their role. Flawlessness? Talk about an impossible standard, not to mention an unimaginable one. (What does perfection even look like anyway?)

Let’s just name this outright–it’s not fair. I can’t imagine anyone hitting 100%........

© Psychology Today