Reply to Why some kids are grateful and caring and others arent?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Well 2 things come to mind.

1.  If you're on the outside looking in, you have no idea what things were like behind closed doors
2.  If you're the parent, your kid may not have viewed their childhood the same way.

I'm sure my mom would describe herself as a dedicated parent who provided all she could.  And she was.  She was also a control freak who was prone to overreacting and manipulating and guilt tripping us.  We walked on eggshells with her being afraid to say or do something that would unintentionally set her off.   As I got older and tried to talk to her about this, she accepted no criticism and waffled between everything was my fault or I was making it all up.   But I know on the outside, we presented as such a perfect UMC family with a SAHM who was active in the community.  [/quote]

You come across as immature to me. The measuring stick for a parent is what choices they made given who they were. My dad was raised very poor (to the point of food insecurity) and has carried the resulting trama his whole life even though I grew up MC. You would likely call many of his parenting choices controlling. I didn’t like them at the time and haven’t done the same to my kids, but based on the life he’d lived to that point. Though as an adult I’ve never doubted he was trying to do the best he could for me seeing life through a very different lens. 
[/quote]

Pp here.  There were things my mom did that at the time I thought were controlling but as an adult/parent I completely have rethought.  I still think she was more strict than most but I at least understand her reasoning.  There is nothing I can think of that will make me understand why she would threaten to send me to an adoption agency because I didn't want to pick up my room (I was probably 6) or telling me I had made her so upset I was going to give her a heart attack and then I could explain to my dad and brother that I had killed her (said while feeling her pulse and saying she had chest pain and palpitations). I could write a novel about everything she did.  So while it's great that you understand why your dad was strict and can understand us, not all of us are that fortunate.   Some of us truly do have strict, controlling, and emotionally manipulative parents.  [/quote]

PP, I’m sorry this happened to you. Don’t waste your breath explaining yourself to this person or others. She’s clearly just trying to rile things up or she has royally messed things up with her own children and wants to place blame on the adult children. Of course, sometimes it’s the adult child’s fault, if we are talking about new issues where adults are responsible for their actions and decisions. But often it’s leftover childhood trauma. You don’t need to show gratitude for that. Or maybe you can separate the gratitude from the trauma. Depends on the level I guess. In any case, you don’t owe anyone anything except to go to sleep feeling good about whatever decisions you take each day. [/quote]

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