Although many people have witnessed this phenomenon at sports games, spelling bees, and parent-teacher conferences, few researchers have studied it. A 2013 study was one of the first to provide experimental evidence that parents do indeed attempt to redeem broken dreams through their children. The researchers found that parents can feel pride in their children’s achievements and even heal old wounds. When taken to extremes, however, living vicariously through a child can damage both the child and the parent.
It can be difficult for parents to decide whether they’re involved and supportive or obsessed with pushing their children to fulfill their own broken dreams. Most parents encourage children to do things the parents enjoy. For example, parents who love reading may take their children to bookstores, while avid gardeners may relish spending time in the yard with dirt-loving toddlers. There’s nothing wrong with this, as long as parents follow a child’s lead and allow children to pursue their own interests.
Some signs that you might be living vicariously through your child include:
Most parents want their children to have excellent lives. For many, this means encouraging children not to make the same mistakes they did, Many parents also feel pressure to give their kids certain advantages or to conform to an unrealistic ideal of parenthood. Parenting culture can be competitive, shame-inducing, and exhausting. When combined with a parent’s regret about their own childhood, it’s easy to see why some parents project dreams onto their children.
Most parents do not intend to harm their children and truly believe they are doing what is in a child’s best interests. It’s important to look beyond your motives and consider the role your emotions and experiences might play in your parenting decisions.
For a small minority of parents, children can act as a narcissistic supply. These parents may use their children as a way to gain acclaim or attention. This behavior pattern is prevalent among people with narcissistic personality, though not all people who do this have NPD. If you use your child to feel good about yourself, you may be behaving narcissistically.
Children are separate people from their parents. They inevitably develop different interests and dreams, even when they also share much in common with their parents. Attempting to fulfill a dream through a child is inherently harmful because it ignores that child’s individuality. Pushing a child into a predetermined role can snuff out the child’s unique gifts and interests, preventing the child from achieving their own dreams or realizing their own potential.
When parents try to get their own needs met by living vicariously through their offspring, it puts tremendous pressure on the child and reverses the proper roles.In a healthy parent-child relationship, love and support flow from the parent to the child. Attempting to fill emotional voids through a child can cause a parent to ignore a child’s needs or fail to give the child the unconditional love and support that are hallmarks of good parenting.
In its most extreme forms, living vicariously through a child can be a form of abuse. Parents may aggressively pigeonhole a child into a role, ignoring the child’s needs and feelings. Some parents even become physically or emotionally abusive in an attempt to get their children to excel at certain activities. These parents might spank their children for not practicing piano or insult a child’s appearance before a beauty pageant.
As children grow and learn, their key task is one of individuation—separating from their parents and establishing a unique identity. Parents must help them do this by supporting children to pursue their own dreams. When parents are unwilling or unable to do this, children’s emotional and intellectual growth may be stunted. This can make it difficult for children to succeed as adults, to feel a sense of self-efficacy, or to make decisions without a parent’s input.
“It is a parent’s job to do what is in their children’s best interest. That includes the parent dealing with his or her own emotions in ways that best further the healthy development of the children. When parents try to get their own needs met by living vicariously through their offspring, it puts tremendous pressure on the child and reverses the proper roles. In this scenario the child is being pressured to meet their parent’s needs, which is very destructive to proper child development. In order to avoid this course, parents are wise to seek out psychological help so that they can process their feelings and unmet needs with a professional instead of burdening their children with those feelings and needs,” says Johannes Kieding, LCSW, a Tucson, Arizona, psychotherapist.
Therapy can help both parents and children deal with the harmful aftermath of vicarious living. Family therapy can help families manage conflicts stemming from this harmful parenting style by giving children a voice, fostering effective communication, and providing a safe space to discuss alternative parenting strategies.
Parents who feel compelled to live vicariously through a child can also find great relief from individual therapy. A therapist can:
A compassionate therapist can help you live a life of purpose without foisting your dreams onto your child.
References:
The preceding article was solely written by the author named above. Any views and opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by GoodTherapy.org.