Parentification is when the roles of a child and a parent are reversed. Learn more about the parentification audio session. If you had to act as the family’s caretaker, mediator, or protector as a child, you’ve been parentified. Parentification is a sort of mental abuse and a violation of one’s boundaries.
What is Parentification, and how does it work?
Parentification is a harmful family dynamic that is rarely discussed and, in some cultures, even regarded as the norm. However, studies have shown that it can have long-term harmful psychological consequences.
When the roles of a child and a parent are reversed, this is known as parentification. Parentification is defined as follows by researchers:
Evidence suggests a functional and/or emotional role reversal in which the child compromises his or her own needs for attention, comfort, and guidance in order to accommodate and care for the logistical and emotional requirements of a parent and/or sibling.
In general, there are two types of parentification:
• When a child becomes the parents’ counsellor, confidant, or emotional carer, this is known as emotional parentification. This can include a sort of ‘Emotional Incest,’ in which the child is treated as the parent’s intimate partner. Perhaps the parents were unsatisfied with their own marriage or with their lives. They may vent their frustrations on the child, cry uncontrollably, moan about their relationships, or even injure themselves in front of the youngster. Whatever they disclose with the youngster is too much for their impressionable minds to handle.
In homes when one or both parents suffer from mental diseases like as depression, emotional parentification is common. It could also be a result of the parents’ own attachment issues or transgenerational trauma.
• Instrumental parentification occurs when a child takes on ‘functional obligations,’ such as housework, cooking, cleaning, caring for younger siblings, driving themselves to the doctor, and other ‘adult’ responsibilities in the home.
This is prevalent in families where one or both parents are unable to care for their children due to an injury or illness.
If you, a sibling or somebody you know are emotionally scared because of parentification, please read more about the hypnosis download, Parentified Child .
