15 Signs of Toxic Parenting
Many times our beliefs and outlook can be grounded in our upbringing. You are worthy of love and respect, regardless of what you were shown or told by your parents.
Here are a few signs of toxic parenting.
1. They disrespect you and don’t treat you with a basic level of decency.
2. They project their negative emotions out onto you and use you as a “scapegoat”.
3. They discourage you from being your authentic self.
4. They project their interests onto you without any consideration or regard for your own desires.
5. They present a very limited capacity for empathy.
6. They’re self-centered and are inattentive to your own needs.
7. They manipulate you to get their way (e.g. guilt tripping).
8. They’re overly critical and nothing you do is good enough for them.
9. They don’t respect your boundaries and erode them even when you stress the importance of them.
10. You regularly leave an interaction with them feeling drained/worse than at the start.
11. They are overly competitive with you and seek to diminish your successes instead of cheering you on for them.
12. They are nasty to you (e.g. insults).
13. They shame you in front of others.
14. They blame you for things that aren’t your fault.
15. They depend on you excessively (e.g. emotional support) and don’t give anything back.
In order to prevent another person’s toxicity from negatively affecting how worthy you feel, it’s important that you predicate your self-esteem and your love for yourself on factors that are internal to you and that are in your control (as opposed to on the way someone else treats you).
For example:
Loving yourself because you’re kind.
Loving yourself because you’re honest.
Loving yourself because you’d be there to support a friend in need.
Loving yourself because you treat other people with respect.
Loving yourself because you’re a strong person who never gives up.
Please remember you’re lovable and worthy even if they don’t see it.
