What's a Parent's Role?

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Your brain sees the child, not the adult.

Guilt quietly hijacks good parenting.

You're afraid of losing the relationship.

Few things are more emotionally painful than watching your adult child struggle. If you are like many parents who reach out to me for coaching, you are saying to yourself, "They need the help." Let's be clear, I am not against parents helping out their adult children. But the adage, "Give a person a fish, they have dinner. Teach them how to fish, they never go hungry," comes to mind.

Whether your adult child is dealing with anxiety, depression, addiction, or emotional reactivity in general, or is simply having a hard time adulting, many parents get that nagging, "They need my help" sound bite reverberating loudly in their minds. By the way, while a lot of this post is about parents struggling to say no to financial requests and manipulation, it also addresses struggling to say no to being treated poorly and repeatedly accused of being the sole source of their children's difficulties.

Feeling like you should help (and unconditionally accept blame) may seem like you're being supportive, but it usually ends up........

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