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DOES THIS MEAN PARENTING IS A MENTAL ILLNESS?
Codependency is a dysfunction associated with excessively focusing on the needs and behaviors of others. But isn’t that also what parenting is all about?
| Codependents |
Parents |
- place the needs of others above their own
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- which explains why parents never get enough sleep, can’t get a minute to sit down and relax, and frequently find themselves sitting in a booth at Chuck E. Cheese eating cold pizza and waiting for tokens to run out
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- derive their sense of self from being a caretaker and feel lost without somebody to need them
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- which explains why parents cry when their pre-schoolers finally learn to tie their shoelaces by themselves
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- commit to things they don’t want to do, then resent having to do them
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- like playdates, chaperoning school field trips, hosting sleepovers or anything involve a PTA sub-committee
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- feel like they are the only ones who can do things right
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- even after explaining “how to” three or four times using charts, graphs, diagrams and instructional videos
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- make excuses for the bad behavior of those they are taking care of
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- especially in public, when in-laws or other parents are watching, even though nobody really believes it when they say their kids are just “over-tired,” “still learning to share,” or “out of sorts”
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- and would probably go to therapy because of it if they had the time
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- constantly give but get little or nothing in return
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- all day, every day, without so much as “thank you” — Is it really that hard to show a little appreciation for all the time and effort parenting takes?
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- do things others are clearly capable of
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- like picking up the towels on the bathroom floor, wiping butts, “helping” with science projects that were supposed to have been started weeks ago but weren’t, etc.
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So then if parenting does qualify as a mental illness, shouldn’t health insurance pay for some kind of treatment like a week alone on a beach in Cabo San Lucas or even just a night of babysitting?
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