What's a Parent's Role?

Take our Authoritative Parenting Test

Find a family therapist near me

Parents get so skilled at reading an adult child’s emotional weather that they lose touch with their own.

Constantly anticipating the next crisis or blowup may feel protective, but the focus is one person’s moods.

You can care deeply about your adult child’s storm without having to stand outside in it.

This post, in a manner of speaking, is about the weather. A father, we can call him Mike, told me something that sounded almost like a superpower. He said, “I can tell from the first three words of her text what kind of night we’re going to have.” To clarify, his 29-year-old daughter, Sophia, didn’t live with him, which was the striking part. Remarkably, she actually lived 40 miles away, yet Mike could detect an approaching storm before it arrived.

I asked Mike to explain this further, and he shared what happens when Sophia says, “Can I ask you something?” That often translates to a possible financial storm. Or when Sophia leads with “You’re probably going to say no, but…,” that forecasts a high probability of conflict. Now let's get to the doozy. Mike elaborated: "When Sophia says, 'Never mind,' I have come to see that as a severe emotional storm approaching."

The Most Ominous........

© Psychology Today