“Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy,” this statement by Robert A. Heinlein comes up as a strong defense for parents who are tough on their children. Difficult parents can actually help their kids learn the necessary life skills in a better way, by making them mentally stronger and more adaptable. However, it can have its own drawbacks, especially when the parents go too far with their tough attitude. This is because no kid wants constant bickering to follow him/her through the day. As a young child, it can really affect his/her temperament and disposition, especially if he/she does not know how to handle parents in the right way. The article brings up some useful tips for the same. Read on to explore tips on how to handle your difficult parents.
Dealing With Difficult Parents
Find Healthy Ways To Express Your Feelings
While swallowing the rebuke hurled at you by your parents may be difficult, you simply cannot ask them to shut up and give you a break. However, if you are not venting it out, the anger piling up inside can manifest itself in violent and self-destructive ways and lead to emotional outbursts on small things. You need to find a sensible and healthy way to express your feelings, so that you do not fall a victim to anxiety and depression, which is common in such cases.
Learn To Forgive
Practicing forgiveness will go a long way in making your life easier, not just with your parents, but with everyone. To be able to forgive will prevent you from becoming bitter and hold feelings of resentment against your parents. After all, you can’t change the fact that you have got them as parents, even if you wish so. Learn from your experience with them, as to how to handle them. Your forgiving attitude may encourage them to change their behavior towards you.
Remember That They Don’t Hate You
As a child, it can be very difficult to take constant nagging by your parents, which can foster a feeling of rejection in you. There are times when you may wonder if everything with you is wrong and that you are basically unwanted. You would do yourself a great help by keeping in mind that no parents in the world hate or despise their child, no matter how acidic their remarks and insults are. They would never want you in a soup and perhaps this is also the reason, they are a little too tough on you. They just don’t know how to do it the right way.
Share Your Feelings With Close Friends
Instead of holding the pain within you, share your feelings with your close friends or relatives and vent out your feelings. For all you know, they might have a solution or good piece of advice to offer you. If you can, try talking it out with people who have a good influence on your parents, so that they get to know about your feelings from the right source. Stacking up hard feelings against your parents can only make you lose your peace of mind and sanity. So, vent out your frustration before the right people.