Daughters Rising

Dear Teenaged Daughter -The Story of How I Let You Go And What I Learned 

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The heartbreak and gift of letting your daughter go

Dear Teenaged Daughter,

(written 10 years ago) 

You have that far away look in your eyes now. Home isn’t the center of your universe.

I knew it would be this way. I just didn’t know how much it would hurt.

That open face in the photo I have of you as a toddler, so eager and trusting of me- where did she go? Where did you go?

Yet, I reflect… my own mother struggled with letting me go, and I swore I’d do better. I just didn’t know it would hurt so much.

Now, made-up eyes and a knockout figure, you look down your pretty nose and smirk at the rest of us as though we were clueless trolls. I mispronounce the name of your favorite clothing store and you shudder visibly in disgust.

Even your compliments have a patronizing air.

Yesterday, the universe threw me a small crumb.

Watching TV in my bed, you were exhausted, and, uncharacteristically, fell asleep in my arms. It reminded me of when you were a baby and I’d let my arm go numb rather than move it and disturb your sleep. I thought to myself, if this is the last time I hold you, I dare not move.

I know I can’t make it “all better” anymore- but maybe you could just rest awhile in mommy’s arms.

Without words, lectures, questions, opinions between us, I hear your strong heartbeat; your breathing slow, your warm body loses its resistance and melts into mine. Yes, just like when you were little before you could talk.

Before we let the words-opinions-lectures get in the way. Before you found me out to be the imperfect being that I am.

Once upon a time, I was the mommy who made it all better, not the mommy who gets it all wrong.

Your need conjured my milk, my love, my comfort…

You awakened my inner movie star. I had, at long last, been discovered. I sang you show tunes and we danced. You squealed with delight. When you were hungry, I nursed you. When you were tired or cranky, I rocked you to sleep. You took naps in my arms and full-time residence in my heart.

You accepted me in ways I couldn’t accept myself. Now you reject me in ways I don’t understand.

So, little girl, rest your pretty head on my shoulder. Take a break from your hurry to grow up, your hurry to leave. I think I’ll take a break from trying to improve, cajole, and advise you.

Remember the perfection we had without even trying- before you found out you would have to leave. Before I started worrying if you have everything you need.

This may not be the last time I hold you close, but I know there will be a last time.

The train is coming for you and you are packing your bags. You have a one-way ticket.

Each time you leave the house you never return completely. Home is becoming more of a layover, instead of the destination, it is for the rest of us.

I know you need to make a home inside of yourself, and your dreams the destination. This, I know, is the only way.

Still, it hurts.

So let me hold you and we can remember a time when I had everything you needed, our perfection restored. We can both pretend we don’t hear that whistle calling you, and my heart isn’t on that track.

 (10 years later)-

More than a decade has passed and we are sharing a glass of wine in the home you now make with your husband, almost 3-year old daughter, and infant son.

We made it to the other side. Because you were brave enough to leave and I found the strength to let you go.

What looked only like a loss to me then… looks different to me now.

With a tender heart, I watch your 3-year old daughter load up her stroller with baby dolls and announce she is going to “work”.

Although I say nothing, I hear that haunting train whistle in the distance-the whistle that will call your precious daughter into her own life. I know what’s coming….who will leave, and whose heart will be on that track.

When the time comes, I hope to once again hold your hand and wipe your tears. 

I have faith you will find the strength to set her free. Finding that strength inside of yourself, you will give her the gift you never wanted to give and it will break your heart.

Yet, you will see mothers who can’t let go; cripple their daughters, and steal their daughter’s chance of claiming a life they could call their own.  

You will know the price those daughters pay is much too high.

So, without martyrdom, but with strength, you will do what needs to be done. And, you will be better for it. Fashioned from the pieces of your broken heart, you will acquire an expanded heart-one of compassion, wisdom, and grace.

• The compassion of a mother who knows her daughter’s dreams for herself is more important than the dreams she has for her daughter.

• The wisdom of a mother who sees the need her daughter has to do it her way, not as a rejection of her but a declaration of herself.

• The grace of a mother who knows a heart chained is a heart that is never truly hers, but the one she sets free can be hers forever.

Then and only then will you know this: Of the many gifts you will give your daughter, after loving her, the gift of letting her go is the hardest gift and the greatest gift you have to give her.

Do you suffer from the Good daughter syndrome? Take the quiz here, it’s free.

 

 

How To Listen To Your Daughter Instead Of Giving Advice

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You know the feeling. You are just itching to give advice, but you can sense it isn’t the best thing to do.

( how to listen to your daughter instead of giving advice and why you should)

You’ve noticed:

-Your advice always seems to fall on deaf ears.
-You can talk yourself blue… but your advice seems to go in one ear and out the other.
-From the depths of your experience, you give her your very best hard-won, heartfelt advice. Then, she turns around and ignores it, or does the complete opposite.-Or worse, your daughter appears to listen & seems to agree, only to proceed precisely the way she was going to in the first place as if you never said a thing.

“Why even try?”, you ask yourself, exhausted.

You wished you had someone there for you the way you’re there for her, caring enough to listen.

When it isn’t making you ill as a hornet, her dismissal is breaking your heart. You have so much to offer your daughter, so much pain to spare her, and she just throws your advice away like yesterday’s news.

You sense she needs something more from you but, for the life of you,  you don’t know what.

If this happens more than you care to admit, and resentment has begun to set in, perhaps it is time to take a step back and re-evaluate your approach.

Ask yourself- Do you want to be right? Or would you rather feel close and connected?

Is this the time for setting her straight?  Or is it the time to lay the groundwork for trust and emotional safety.

Getting clear on this may be harder than you think.

If you are like so many mothers, you feel intense internal pressure to be right, to have the answers. In this culture, most mothers do feel pressure to fix things for their daughters.  They are tasked with the competing demands of being everything to their daughters while, simultaneously, letting them go.

Nevermind it is impossible to do both at once.

What can you do?

If it is a more significant connection you want, you will be ready to reassess your approach.

To that end, you can increase your sense of connection by asking questions that keep the focus on your daughter who is struggling, rather than telling her what to do.

6 Questions To Ask Instead Of Giving Advice- (when you’d rather be close than be right)

1. What do you see as your options in this situation?

2. How do you understand the problem?

3. What do you feel is at stake here?

4. What is it that you want out of the situation?

5. If you could bring yourself to do anything, what would that be?

6. What kind of outcome would you consider a success?

By asking follow-up questions, you convey that you trust the intelligence, sensitivity, and competence of your daughter.

This helps her feel valued instead of corrected.

When she feels valued, she will be more open and less guarded with you. And, over time, being open and accepted strengthens the connection and builds feelings of trust.

If it is connection you want, you have to demonstrate that you care more than you need to be right.

When you ask questions rather than give answers and opinions,  you show her you believe in her ability to figure things out for herself. What’s more, when you have nurtured a genuine connection, any advice ( when it is asked for) actually has a better chance of landing.

As a therapist to women for 30 years, I see that many women, especially mothers,  feel that they need to provide answers. Many times their daughters don’t need answers as much as they need witness, acceptance, warmth, and connection.

If they don’t explicitly ask for advice, many times they know what they should do… they just have trouble implementing it. When she talks it out with you, she feels connected and supported. This will help your relationship and, ultimately, help her carry out what she knows is right- for her.

If I could put a bug in many a mother’s ear of a grown daughter, this is what I would say.-

” Your daughter is trusting you with her struggle. Listen generously, and only give advice that is asked for. You need to make sure that your daughter feels heard, accepted, and valued before you give advice.”

As a mother, I know it is hard to forgo being the one with the answers. But, if you let your daughter come to her own solutions as you support her, the payoff is huge.

 

You will feel more connected, and she will be more willing to come to you again and share her struggles all the while helping you grow closer.

It’s all part of the important work of letting your daughter go. It is the hardest gift to give her but the most important gift to give.

To find out if you suffer from the good daughter syndrome- take the quiz here!

 

When you feel connected, your daughter will be more willing to come to you again and share her struggles.. while helping you grow closer. Click To Tweet Your daughter is trusting you with her struggle. Listen generously, and only give advice that is asked for. Click To Tweet Click To Tweet If it is connection you want, you have to demonstrate that you care more than you need to be right. Click To Tweet

 

 

Why Daughters of Narcissistic/Difficult Mothers Mistake Anxiety For Love

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The empathetic, sensitive daughter of the narcissistic or otherwise difficult mother… never learns what love really looks like.

The lessons she learns about love cause her to mistake anxiety for love.

(*disclaimer- this will apply in varying degrees to each individual- see what is applicable for you)

How does this happen?

Because mom is your primary attachment figure (read, your first love) the way you learned to love is your template for love. Biologically we are primed for attachment. In this extended state of dependency, we are one big love machine. Because we can’t feed ourselves, walk or talk on our own for almost a year, we literally can’t survive without a mothering (or caregiving) presence.

Babies are cute for a reason, an evolutionary reason. Mother nature ensures our survival by making us irresistibly cute and undeniably taken with our primary caregiver. We are in fact wired to love the one we are with. So baby ( that would be you) is going to make the best of it… with all she’s got.

Mother nature has her way

One of the brain’s primary functions at this stage is to bond…which is to fall deeply and completely in love.  Your first meal was at Mom’s breast or the bottle while gazing into her eyes. Your first bed was found in her arms. The voice you first heard was hers in utero, and then later cooing you to sleep.

Home to you was wherever mom was. The nest she created, your room, and the house you grew up in was an extension of mom. The way the kitchen smelled when she cooked your favorite food…. her perfume, the touch of the blanket or teddy bear that she gave you- all an extension of mom.

What happens if mom is depressed, narcissistic or borderline?

You may have looked into your mother’s eyes only to find emptiness rather than delight. If she was fighting off anxiety, she might have been unable to be present in a way that soothed you.  Perhaps your needs overwhelmed her. Not because you were too much but because she felt inadequate as a mother.

If she was unable to self-regulate, she was unable to be a soothing presence for you.

Did she have enough food? Was your father out drinking and she jumped every time she heard a police siren or the phone ring? Perhaps brother or sister was challenging to handle and distracted mom so much that you lost her loving attention. Or she was unmothered herself… to such an extent that she just didn’t have it in her to give to you.

As the good, attuned, empathetic daughter you did more than your fair share of the emotional work to make the relationship work- especially if mom was psychologically impaired.

When you fall in love-

When you fall for that beautiful boy, that handsome rouge or that irresistible same-sex partner your attachment systems go all out. The same system that activated to ensure your survival is now activated to make sure you pair bond and reproduce.

Mother nature wants what she wants. She doesn’t care if he or she is right or wrong for you. Indiscriminately, all attachment systems are set on go.

Mother nature is having her way with you.

This is why the whites of the eyes show as lovers gaze at each other. The pupils dilate, and the heart pounds. You call each other baby. You coo and feed each other, hold and caress. Simply gazing into each other’s eyes can cause a cascade of feel-good hormones.

This template etched in your unconscious is the operating system running the show.  The script from which you speak is what you unconsciously bring into your relationships. Mother nature is trying to ensure your next meal and protection from the elements, and your brain is calling it love!

What happens when you meet the not so nice guy or gal.

Because of this unconscious template, when you are dropped, ignored or dissed by your romantic interest you automatically feel… it is your fault.

This isn’t true, but your faulty attachment system is telling you it is true.

How did you get so unlucky?

While some people (who have a different attachment template) might avoid or disengage when faced with an unavailable or not so nice partner, this isn’t you. You love, love, love, a project. You go all out as if your life depended on making this relationship work.

What was once rooted in your childhood experience is now buried deep in your unconscious brain telling you dangerous lies.

How do you experience it consciously?

You might misinterpret your anxiety as butterflies… telling you this is the one instead of telling you the more appropriate message- run for the hills.

You feel on a deep primal preverbal level that your very lovability is in question. And associated with this is your very survival. When you don’t feel the attention or love from the other in a dependable, consistent way, you feel anxiety.

Your attachment system makes you an addict in need of a fix of attention.

You lose sight of considering whether the other person is a suitable partner. We joke and say you lose your mind. But this is true.  You look for ways to keep the “other’s” attention. Instead of looking out for yourself, you work to elicit signs of their affection &/or caretaking from the other.

And you start to confuse anxiety with love-

This can be a slippery slope anxiously working to keep the other person’s attention. Do it enough, and you only reinforce the idea that you are in love. Before you know it, love hurts.

What you call it love, is in fact, primarily anxious bonding from an insecure attachment.

While the baby in you trying to ensure survival, the good daughter in you is working too hard and settling for more she should.

*You aren’t doomed and you aren’t broken. You deserve to be loved and give love. If you find yourself trapped in a pattern of mistaking anxiety for love know it isn’t your fault. Healing begins with awareness.

To find out if you are caught in the good daughter trap go here.

Because mom is your primary attachment figure (read, your first love) the way you learned to love is your template for love. Click To Tweet If you find yourself trapped in a pattern of mistaking anxiety for love know it isn't your fault. Healing begins with awareness. Click To Tweet You might misinterpret your anxiety as butterflies... telling you this is the one instead of telling you the more appropriate message- run for the hills. Click To Tweet

 

Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers Are At Risk For Postpartum Depression- Here’s Why

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Postpartum Depression-

 When you become a mother.

For, you, the daughter of the Narcissistic or Difficult mother, new motherhood can be terrifying. Just when everyone expects you to be blissing out, you can feel like a failure and nobody wants to talk about why.

You look at your beautiful baby only to have tears stream down your face. You are swamped with not feeling good enough and overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy. It might be merely hormonal, but then again it might be something more.

This may help you make sense of your feelings. It wasn’t your fault. Here’s why.

If you are a daughter of a  Narcissistic or difficult mother,  you have so little in your tank, so little to draw on, a babies needs can feel draining and endless.

Pregnancy, childbirth, nursing, infancy, are all fraught with the dangerous feelings of “not good enough.”

Does your babies newborn cry feel torturous?

You might feel that your baby is screaming to all the world that you are worthlessness and that she sees it.

Or, equally tortuous,  you can feel that your baby is a monster sucking the life out of you. Her needs, feel like too much.

What’s more, you are filled with shame for having those feelings. You know how crazy this all sounds, it is hard to talk about with anyone.  

It doesn’t help that everyone around you is expecting you to be joyful,  but you can’t stop crying and feeling hopeless.

With the physical trauma of childbirth and the hormonal upheaval, it can all come crashing down on you in the form of postpartum depression.

When the baby-blues hang on for weeks, even months without lifting you and your baby will suffer.

This can be so hard.

This isn’t trivial whining about mom. This is real emotional pain.

I have hope for you.

But first, you must understand something.

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The feelings that are coming up for you are not your fault.

If you could understand what is happening and be gentle with yourself.

These uncomfortable feelings are from the basement of your unconscious. You don’t choose to feel this way. In fact, every cell in your being is saying.. Stop. Stop. Stop.

It has nothing to do with how much you love your baby or whether you are good enough.

Did you hear me?

Let me repeat-

These feelings have nothing to do with how much you love your baby or how much you will love your baby.

You are (unconsciously) responding to what your baby symbolizes.

Perhaps your own mother suffered herself. You looked into her eyes and for one reason or another, all you got was, lights out, distraction or flat affect.

No delight. No joy. Just an emptiness.

You don’t choose to have these negative nightmare feelings- they are just there.

Even if you love your baby beyond belief, you might still have these feelings. That is so hard to understand yourself, much less describe to anyone else.

Yet,  I get you.  This is completely understandable. 

If you are the daughter of the narcissistic or difficult mother, you put your mother’s happiness ahead of your own without even knowing it.

You had to.

When baby arrives on the scene, even a much wished for baby; it hits you on a primal level -your time will never come.

It hits you in the gut – you never got to live for yourself. And now it is too late. 

This, of course, is not true- but emotionally it hits you as true.

But life goes on and …

You and your baby have found your way to each other.  But you still remember that awful emptiness when everything seemed too much.

You can never forget that feeling.

Did anyone help you with this? Did you suffer in silence and shame? Was your postpartum depression passed off as simply a medical problem, not a psychological one with real understandable roots?

You did your best then.  The more you know about the cycle and make healing a priority now, the better.

That is why this mother /daughter work is so very important. Revolutionary, even.

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The silence and shame have to stop. The psychological curtain of postpartum depression must be pulled back; the unconscious made conscious.

You are not alone, and you are not crazy.

We need communities of healing, affordable, accessible healing modalities, and understanding. Above all, we need to understand each other.

We all inherit different templates depending on our own mother’s mental health.

This is not in our control, therefore it isn’t our fault.

This isn’t mother against daughter. This work is about lifting up all women. Elevating and supporting all daughters in their time of need so that no one goes it alone.

We are in this together.

If you are going through this right now, reach out to your health professional.

If you remember feeling lost and are now on the other side but still suffer from feelings of guilt, show yourself some kindness and compassion.

I know where you are coming from.

You can heal one story at a time.

This is how we rise.

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DO YOU EXPERIENCE THE "GOOD DAUGHTER" SYNDROME?

Do you have a Narcissistic or Difficult Mother?
Are you the "Good Daughter"? The Rebel? or The Lucky One?
Take the quiz and find out!

Take the quiz!

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If you are a daughter of a Narcissistic or Difficult mother, you have so little in your tank, so little to draw on, a babies needs can feel draining and endless. Click To Tweet These uncomfortable feelings are from the basement of your unconscious. You don't choose to feel this way. It has nothing to do with how much you love your baby or whether you are good enough. Click To Tweet This isn't mother against daughter. This work is about lifting up all women. Elevating and supporting all daughters in their time of need so that no one goes it alone. Click To Tweet

 

 

Why Daughters of Difficult Mothers Aren’t Just Complaining About Mom

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Are you just complaining about mom?

Most adult daughters of difficult mothers I see in psychotherapy are not just complaining about mom. If anything they want to feel love from their mothers. When their mothers are limited or impaired and can’t provide the love and support their daughters need the daughters bear a burden few can understand.

Here is what I have witnessed in my psychotherapy practice ( in the video above).

If you’d rather read- transcript-   You know, after a day of seeing daughters of difficult mothers, I would like to scrap… if I could… once and for all the myth that daughter’s just like to complain about their moms.  It’s not one thing it’s your mom, right? Accompanied by an eye roll. My experience, time after time is that daughters who have difficult narcissistic, histrionic, borderline insecure, addicted moms…, they feel an incredible deep shame.   It’s misplaced, but it’s real because of their mom’s odd behavior, unloving behavior, criticism of them, you know, in psychotherapy they like bring it up, you know, and it stings. It’s not something they’re like, can’t wait to put on facebook or tell the world or label moms this, this and this and this.

New Speaker:                      01:05                       No, they feel a deep shame about….. this is their mom, you know, how could mom who loves me or should love me treat me so badly and the conclusion that they come two more times than not is that because I was unlovable, I didn’t deserve it.

Speaker 1:                              01:33                       And that becomes the problem because when they don’t value themselves, then all of life’s, you know… you name it. And I talk about it all over here, all the things that stem from, from that initial hurt but a child’s pain.

New Speaker:                      01:52                       And when I look into the face of my adult clients, of course, I see the child in them and you know, their eyes lower and they like in a flash, remember something just unbelievable that their mom said or did, and they usually notice it doesn’t happen with their friends.

New Speaker:                      02:17                       Um, but it’s deeply shameful to them. I have not seen really…. been in practice 30 years… women come in and say, you know, my mother is a narcissist and let me tell you, she does this, this, this, and this.

New Speaker:                      02:35                       Maybe that’s happened, but not, none of that is coming to mind right now. So I’d like to bust this myth that, you know, adult daughters just enjoy complaining about their mothers, not when their mothers have serious difficulty and have related to them in ways that sting and hurt.

Are you suffering from the Good Daughter Syndrome? Take the quiz here, it’s free –

Most adult daughters of difficult mothers I see in psychotherapy are not just complaining about mom. If anything they want to feel love from their mothers. Click To Tweet

 

Daughters of Difficult Mothers Who Are Raising Daughters- You Are Heroic: Here’s Why

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Are you raising a daughter even though you have had a difficult childhood?

When you haven’t had good enough mothering yourself, doing the right thing by your own children is an even harder task than usual. I think you are heroic- watch above understand why:

 

If you would rather read- transcript   I want to give a shout out to moms who are truly heroic in my book and that’s the mom who, despite having a very difficult impaired mother themselves, somehow managed to pull it out and come through as they’re raising a daughter even when their tank is empty.  And that’s what it feels like if you’re not filled up with the good, good enough mother love when you’re raising your own daughter. And she is difficult at times.

New Speaker:                      00:41                       Of course children are difficult and you just don’t have anything to pull on. The mother that pulls the punch that doesn’t throw the criticism back at the daughter and doesn’t climb down to her level. And let’s face it, we all do every once in a while. But for those moms who. for the most part, manage to not do that. I mean, that’s just, that’s just a level of heroism to me.

Speaker 1:                              01:11                       It’s also restorative and healing when mom can do that. But I think we shouldn’t ever underestimate, you know, like the mother who has a difficult or impaired mother herself and has an early preteen tell her, you know, she hates her or that she’s ugly or she’s mad at her because she won’t take her to the mall.

New Speaker:                      01:43                       You know, having been a mom, you know, that just hurts. And if you have in your memory bank, okay, well I gave that to my mom and she didn’t retaliate and went, okay, that’s one thing.

New Speaker:                      01:59                       But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about moms who in the memory bank, think I would never say that to my mother or if they did, you know, say something snippy there was hell to pay. There was a silent treatment, there was, you know, criticism for days,.

New Speaker:                      02:20                       Those moms and then having to withstand their own daughter’s, aggression and hostility coming at them, you know, and they stand in their sovereignty. And I’m not saying that they just roll over and they should give a consequence and they should respond, but not to respond out of vengeance and meanness because there’s always a power differential.

New Speaker:                      02:50                       The developed adult has had most have had the opportunity to get their impulses in check and so…, so those moms who didn’t have those experiences, but yet they still come through. I just have all the admiration and respect for those moms. So more power to you.

When you haven’t had good enough mothering yourself, doing the right thing by your own children is an even harder task than usual Click To Tweet

 

 

 

 

Feeling Like You Have to Choose Between Your Mom And Your Partner? Here’s Why That’s Is Destructive

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It’s a terrible choice to have to make.

Feeling like you have to choose between your partner and Mom can be gut-wrenching. Your childhood self is programmed to obey and respond to mom. You feel guilty if you don’t choose mom.
On the other hand, you know you need to choose your partner to establish trust and closeness. When mom puts you in this untenable position &  doesn’t let go, this makes it hard for you to connect with and invest in your partner.

Here is how this breaks down-

When a daughter leaves home and makes a healthy separation from mom and dad ideally she transfers her primary emotional connection from her parents to her partner. This is healthy and necessary. Mom’s task is to let go and her daughter’s task is to grow up and leave.

Each has her own separate emotional task.

Leaving and being left is a necessary developmental task for both the adult daughter and her mother. If this doesn’t happen the adult daughter will not be free to invest fully in her relationship with her adult partner.

This transfer is vital to the health of the newly developed partnership.

  • It is a mom’s job to let go and accept her daughter’s leaving. She needs to connect with and get her emotional needs met by her peers.
  • It is a daughter’s job to enter into an equal relationship with a peer and leave behind her role as a child.

This is the way of healthy development. Each task has its own challenges and responsibilities. Leaving home and making a home of your own is the healthy trajectory, one paved with both loss and gratification.

Letting go is the path toward growth.

However, when mothers make their adult daughters feel responsible for their emotional well being, things are topsy-turvy. Only dysfunction and misery follows. Daughters resent having to care for mom emotionally. Underneath it all, they feel something isn’t right. This emotional burden prevents them from making the healthy separation they need to make for themselves. This is especially true for the daughter trapped in the role of the good daughter and part of the good daughter syndrome.

Here is how this happens –

*A postscript-

It is one thing for a mother and daughter to re-establish closeness after a period of healthy separation. If the period of healthy separation never happens then a genuine adult closeness can never take root.

However, if a mother clings to her daughter and doesn’t let go- her daughter can’t help but feel growing resentment that ends in a mother/daughter tension that is never-ending.

Can mothers and daughters ever be close in a healthy way?

Yes, but first, mom must release her daughter into her own life in order to set the stage for a no strings attached adult relationship.

If your mom can’t let you go and you see yourself in the “good” daughter role there are steps you can take.

If you need a script to tell mom to take a step back and stop giving unwanted advice here is one that is kind and respectful. If you suspect mom might be Narcissistic, Borderline or Histrionic, or has traits of these disorders here is a way to tell.

To find out if you are trapped in the Good Daughter role -go here.

Raise Awareness. Tweet It Out.

When mothers look to their daughters to be their primary partner, this interferes with their daughter's emotional growth. Click To Tweet It is mom's job to let go and accept her daughter's leaving. Click To Tweet It is a daughter’s job to enter into an equal relationship with a partner or peers and leave behind her role as a child. Click To Tweet It is one thing for a mother and daughter to re-establish closeness after a period of healthy separation. If the period of healthy separation never happens then a genuine adult closeness can never take root. Click To Tweet Leaving and being left is a necessary developmental task for both the adult daughter and her mother. Click To Tweet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here Are 3 Ways The Pain of Your Childhood Can Make You A Better Mother

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” I don’t want to mess up my daughter the way my mom messed me up.”

 

Yep, EVERY mother on my psychotherapy couch ( especially the “good” daughter) who has a difficult mother and is now raising a daughter has the worry she will make the same mistakes her mother made and leave her daughter feeling anxious and insecure.

If you are one of those mothers I have good news for you- read on. You can turn straw into gold if you know what to do. It is truly the unexamined dysfunctional childhood that is likely to be repeated.

The old saying, “What we don’t pass back we pass on” holds true. But you might not know, the opposite holds true as well. When you process the pain of your childhood you become a wiser and more compassionate mother.  

When you remember and reflect on how you felt as a child, your awareness can make you more sensitive. Whether through therapy or soul-searching talks with someone close, you’ve taken the time to reflect on and process the pain of your dysfunctional childhood. This kind of reflection yields ninja parenting chops.

That doesn’t mean your home doesn’t look like a madhouse at times. When kids aren’t afraid or neglected all of their feelings are out in the open. This is a good thing. And, because you know what it is like to hurt as a child-

You can see beneath the surface.

You see that…

  1. The quiet, obedient child is not always a happy child. When a child feels despair or shame, she tends to constrict, become quiet, and draw into herself. You know that a child may be overly compliant out of fear, not confidence.
  2. Bad behavior is not always what it seems. The acting out child may be misbehaving because she cannot contain an upsetting feeling, and is working to discharge it or push it away. The out of control behavior is sometimes a cry for help. A cry for an adult to help her get control of her impulses or process overwhelming feelings.
  3. It is not necessarily a good thing when your child tries to take care of you. Although it touches your heart when your child shows concern for you-you know no child should feel responsible for her parent’s happiness.

Because of your own painful childhood, you know when you see these outward signs to look more deeply, remain curious, and approach your child with compassion.  Perhaps your greatest gift can be summed up in a word- empathy. Because every child struggles with powerful emotions, even those in functional homes with good mothers. Your empathy makes you a better mother.

At the opposite end of narcissistic and other rigid defenses, that are at the hallmark of dysfunction lies empathetic attunement. You know maintaining an empathetic connection with your child ( no matter her behavior in the moment) paves the way back to good relationship with you. And relationships that are alive, flexible, and loving, keep families functional.

Connection, not perfection, is the key to good mental health and a happy childhood. Even as you discipline your children, you are empathetic to their need for structure, as well as his/her need for an adult to stay in control when doling out the consequences. You can measure how your momentary withdrawal of approval lands with your child. You are careful to invite her back into your good graces as soon as possible rather than shaming and banishing her.

And, when all goes well- you kick back, a smile of delight spreading across your face, and feel that little catch in your throat as it registers deep within you how grateful you are your child feels loved, protected and cared for.

You know, really know, that the safe loved feeling your child feels… is anything but guaranteed. You work hard to make sure she will never know the pain you’ve felt.

*Bonus-

Not only can you use your childhood pain to inform your parenting today, but when you give to your child the love and compassion you never got from your own parents you can start to heal that place within yourself.

If you were the daughter, who took emotional care of mom chances are you are suffering from the “Good daughter” syndrome. To find out-go here.

When you process the pain of your childhood you become a wiser and more compassionate mother. Click To Tweet Connection, not perfection, is the key to good mental health and a happy childhood. Click To Tweet Not only can you use your childhood pain to inform your parenting today, but when you give to your child the love and compassion you never got from your own parents you can start to heal that place within yourself. Click To Tweet

Choosing Mom Over Your Partner Can Ruin Your Sex Life And Undermine Your Relationship

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Are you choosing Mom over your partner and sabotaging your sex life?

Read below and see if you see yourself.

Her timing is impeccable.

Just when you are starting to get intimate with your partner your cell goes off…”Hold on sweetie; I’ve got to get this. It’s mom calling!” Good lord, the invasion of Iraq didn’t take this much planning. Your oldest is having a play date, SCORE!
The baby down for a nap, SCORE! Your libido is somehow retrieved from the south pole……SCORE! SCORE! SCORE!

Nothing could ruin it, right?

A private moment stolen with your husband/partner, and just as you were starting to, you know, get that lovin’ feelin’, your cell goes off, and it’s YOUR MOTHER. As your husband rolls over, groaning in exasperation and clicks on the remote control, your mother intones into the phone that your sister has just gotten a DWI……..AGAIN! Or something, or someone, has upset her – a family crisis no doubt and she needs your attention, your listening ear. With your hand over the phone, you turn to your husband and whisper- “she really needs to talk. I’m sorry.”  (You’ve played the “good daughter” once again to your detriment.) And just like that your sex life, or what passes for one, has just been put on life support by dear old mom.“SCORE” is replaced with “EPIC FAIL”!

Even IF you could start-up again time-wise, nothing puts the kibosh on your libido like a convo with mom.

Yep- your libido just went into hiding again and has no plans to return.

Let’s take a look at what just happened here-

By answering mom’s call and interrupting your intimate session with your partner, you chose mom over your partner. Did you see that? It might not have even consciously registered.

You may be so used to putting mom first,  you aren’t aware you are choosing her over your adult partner. However, if you habitually choose mom over your partner,  you may have a much bigger problem on your hands. If mom is Narcissistic, Borderline or tremendously insecure, it may be very difficult to enforce healthy boundaries.

Either way, the consequences are just as damaging. All too often the mother/daughter duo steals from the relationship which needs nurturing sustaining and developing. It does so quietly, subtly, but surely. 

This bedroom scenario may be just one example of mom’s intrusion into your marriage.

Does mom’s overreach end here or does she-

  1. Weigh in on pivotal parenting decisions and circumvent your partner’s power?
  2. Relate to you as if she were your primary emotional partner?
  3. Tell you things and request you not tell your partner?

    What can happen if this goes unchecked-

Mom’s intrusiveness can be deadly to your relationship with your husband or significant other. Whether or not you consciously acknowledge it, she is forcing you to choose if this scene is played over and over. What looks at first, innocuous, can gain such destructive force, it can take down a marriage/partnership faster than you can say “Mother, may I?”

Where are you in this?

Is your ” too close”  alliance with mom costing you intimacy with your partner? Is this a corrosive toxin slowly eroding your love life? You may know that your mother drives you crazy and gets under your skin, but you may not know that this dysfunctional dynamic with her is stealing the very key to so much of your happiness.

When your Mother is Narcissistic or difficult, this unhealthy dynamic is put on steroids. The Narcissistic or insecure Mother will experience any closeness her daughter has with another as a threat.

Looking back at the wedding, you realize, mom was front and center. 

Here is how this plays out-

On the surface, the intrusive mother may appear supportive of her daughter’s marriage, yet the daughter, especially the daughter in the role of the”good daughter“, will feel a tug as her alliance is tested.  As a result, the “good daughter” will feel torn instead of support during the planning stages of the wedding.

Underneath the myriad of decisions, Mom is always calling the question- “Who is important here? Whose side are you on?” The ‘good daughter’ knows, always knows, the correct answer. She’d better choose mom. What first starts as a mother/daughter public event- otherwise known as a wedding, quickly devolves into three people in a marriage.

Before you know it, you have formed an unconscious alliance with your mother that leaves your husband or partner -odd man out. You may joke with mom about how clueless men are without seeing what this does to him and your relationship. What you can’t see so clearly is that your put-downs take their toll. Pretty soon the man in your life checks out in front of the television or buries his head in his electronics.

If you could see inside his heart, you might see that he has given up.

He is programmed not to show it, but he can’t take the put-downs anymore, so he protects himself by tuning you out, and keeping his head down. And if you aren’t careful, this begins to be the new normal. Here is where the odds are stacked against you- As a “Good Daughter” you have so many hang-ups about sex, your libido is just a fragile house of cards ready to come tumbling down with the first strong wind of mother guilt.

Sexual shame, mother guilt, and bad girl feelings are anything but a girl’s best friend when it comes to a sex life. With the business of everyday life plus or minus kids… your sex life can be in the toilet before you know it. My final words of caution. It’s not all about sex, but when the sex goes, a whole lot goes with it.

Here’s the bottom line-

3 people in a marriage are one too many. Without a vital connection to your partner, your marriage grows dead on the vine. By elevating mom to an equal or, god forbid, superior status in your marriage you might be quietly ( unconsciously) destroying it.

You can turn this around if you wake up to this underlying destructive dynamic that keeps you in the “good” daughter at the expense of your adult connection.

This is only one of the ways being stuck in the “good daughter” role is bad for you.

Before it’s too late find out if you are stuck in the ” good daughter” role- go here.

3 people in a marriage are one too many. Without a vital connection to your partner, your marriage grows dead on the vine. Click To Tweet Click To Tweet By elevating mom to an equal or, god forbid, superior status in your marriage you might be quietly ( unconsciously) destroying it. Click To Tweet

 

 

 

“Should I Go “No Contact” With Mom”? A 3 Step Guide To Help You Decide

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At what point do you say ENOUGH!

Enough abuse, dysfunction, bullying, drama, intrusion, insults, and toxicity for one lifetime. At what point do you decide going “no contact” with your difficult mother is the way to go?

Almost every daughter of a difficult mother I see struggles with where to draw the line, and if to draw a hard line. 

Seated on my psychotherapy couch, Sarah is in agony. ” I just can’t take one more discussion of my faults. Nothing is ever good enough for her. No matter what I do… she weighs in with criticism and judgment.  I get off the phone in tears feeling terrible about myself. Who needs that? I’d be better off never talking to her again.” 

In a later session, Emily says, “Mom’s a black hole. I constantly take care of her and have nothing left for myself. Her neediness is sucking the life out of me. Everything turns into a drama, and whatever happens, it’s always my fault. When will this end?”

Still later, Susan says,” My mother is toxic. She poisons everything she touches. She twists the truth and manipulates constantly to make herself look good instead of owing up to anything. I’ve had it with her lies and manipulations. After what she said to me yesterday, I am never speaking to that woman again!”

In the course of a therapy day, I hear more than one daughter trapped in the role of the “good daughter”  of a difficult mother struggle with this one agonizing question. “Should I cut my mother off and go no contact? ” Daughters of difficult mothers can’t imagine taking the abuse indefinitely, and they see only one way out… no contact. This is indeed an option. In fact, sometimes it is the only acceptable option.

However, for most of my clients, it is more complicated than that. After the anger subsides, and the amnesia of time washes over them, this one feeling threatens to challenge their resolve- GUILT! Especially for the daughter, trapped in the role of the “good” daughter, guilt has her in a vise grip. When the guilt sets in, I hear some variation of-“But she’s my MOTHER. She did the best she could. She didn’t let me starve. I’ll give her that. Besides, what would she do without me?  I can’t cut my own mother off, can I?”

After 30 years of helping women get to the answer that works for them, I find it boils down to this-

You need to decide what is and is not okay with you, communicate it, and stick to your guns. You only have control over you. You can’t force mom to change, but you can decide how much contact you will have with her. 

When you set those expectations and communicate them most daughters say, “My mother won’t go for that.” Of course, she won’t. If, you were to wait for mom to realize the error of her ways you might be waiting a lifetime.  Chances are you have always let mom call the shots. That’s just the way it is. Because we are shaking things up a bit this isn’t about your usual stance, submitting to mom, this is about considering yourself.

In this scenario, you aren’t asking her for permission, you are deciding what is okay with you. Big difference. It’s time to take the reins of your own life. Having her in your life, or not, is your choice. You didn’t choose your mother but you can choose how you relate (or if you relate)  to the mother you have.

Now let’s get down to the process that can get you there.

Your 3 step guide

AWARENESS–  consider what it costs you when you abdicate your power to mom and let her call the shots. Are you going to live your life for your mother forever?

CONFIDENCE -find your voice and learn what stating your boundaries and limits sounds like, how to say it, and, what to say.

RESOLVE– steady yourself for the inevitable pushback you get when you set those boundaries. Did I say pushback? A tsunami of resistance would be more like it. You need to be emotionally prepared.

Sounds good. Will this be easy? Not on your life. In fact, whether you get a minor tremor or a significant earthquake of resistance, is directly proportional to the level of dysfunction in your relationship. A healthy, balanced relationship involves both parties who consider each other’s interests and compromise.

While the resistance is undeniably upsetting, it also holds incredibly valuable information. When your reasonable request touches off explosive resistance, you know you have unearthed a landmine of dysfunction. And, you can’t deal with something you don’t know is there.

How you can prepare?

If you are clear and have internal resolve (admittedly a huge task), the rest will fall into place. Not easily, or smoothly, but developing internal resolve is essential for your own healing whether or not your mother ever changes. By taking the upper hand, you have flipped the dynamics of the relationship. The first part of your life, mom held the power. Now it’s your turn.

Whether you go low contact, no contact or “I’m taking a break for now” contact, if you have communicated your needs and limits, you can let her decide the level of contact by her actions and response. In effect you are saying, ” Mom here is where I stand,  you decide how you will show up in my life.” In this way, you take control of your life instead of hoping she will change

*A Bonus-  you don’t have to shoulder all of the responsibility of deciding whether or not you and your mother have a relationship or what kind of relationship. With a wake-up call, mom may alter her approach. You don’t know until you try. Then, making the call about how much contact you want is based on real-life data. One thing is for certain, hoping mom will change is not a strategy. Whatever her response, by exercising your power in this way, you build your confidence, and start living life on your own terms. 

Nothing will ever change unless you do.

To find out if you are trapped in the role of the good daughter go here.

 

 

 

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