What's a Parent's Role?

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Every parent wants an accountable, resilient, and successful child.

Confusing sympathy with empathy can sabotage your child's development.

Sympathy creates dependency, a victim mentality, and a lack of empathy.

Empathy strengthens a child's sense of self and resilience.

Every parent wants a child who is accountable, resilient, and successful. Yet mistaking sympathy for empathy can cripple your child from embodying these important qualities. Knowing the difference is imperative.

Sympathy is when a parent, who holds the power in the parent-child relationship, feels sorry for the child. Because they do not want the child to feel bad, they are tempted to do several things that may ultimately hurt the child and those around the child. First, they try to fix things by getting the rules changed for them. Second, they choose to perceive the child as the victim in the scenario instead of who they are: the aggressor. This allows the parent to excuse the child from accountability by shifting the blame, often twisting the narrative so their child is exonerated and others unfairly blamed.

Inadvertently, this teaches the child to believe that they are a perpetual........

© Psychology Today