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[quote=Anonymous]Oh, lots. My dad has a lot of narcissistic traits. He grew up in a large, abusive family with an alcoholic and absent father and never really learned what empathy was or the concept of caring for others. Sometimes I feel bad for him even though his behavior screwed me up a lot when I was young, because he just never really had a chance. But I do think I've escaped that fate, thankfully, and don't really see it passing on to my kid (though it is something I think about).

I worry more about traits from my mom. She has very low self-esteem and chronic depression, and I have definitely inherited those to a degree. But unlike my mom, I have pursued treatment for both and do work pretty hard at them. It is hard at times but my approach to it is so different than my mom's. She can be very defeatist about it, specifically because they are heritable traits, to where she's like "oh well, this is just how everyone in our family is." But I don't accept that and I think I've come a long way. But I also do assume it's highly likely my kid will acquire them. My goal is just to be responsive to signs and supportive in ways my mom wasn't -- making sure she has access to therapy or medication if necessary, providing a calm and supportive home life where it's possible to talk about difficult feelings and address them instead of ignoring and suppressing.

I also worry she will wind up with acne like I did, but as with the mental health, I intend to be more supportive in helping to address it than my parents were. [/quote]

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