231. When Difficult Children Become Estranged Adults

What if you did your best with a child who was unusually difficult to raise… and then as an adult, they became estranged?

The pain can be especially deep when you remember how hard you worked, the challenges you faced as a parent, and how much you tried to get things right.

In this episode, therapist and host Tina Gilbertson explores the possibility that difficult temperaments and mismatches between parents and children aren't anyone's fault. Instead of looking for someone to blame, she invites listeners to consider what compassion might make possible -- compassion for the child you struggled to raise, and compassion for the human parent you were and still are.

Tina encourages listeners to look honestly at their reasons for wanting contact with difficult, now-estranged adult children. What are you hoping contact will do? And what might change if you could radically accept yourself, your child, and your history together as reality, and start from there?

For evidence-based tools to repair a troubled parent-adult child relationship, read host Tina Gilbertson's book, Reconnecting With Your Estranged Adult Child. https://amzn.to/2ZhetMe

Reconnection Club members can discuss this and every episode in the General Discussion forum inside the Reconnection Club. Not a member yet? Learn more and join. https://reconnectionclub.com

Follow Tina Gilbertson on Substack. https://tinagilbertson.substack.com/

EPISODE LINKS:

To incorporate the healing light of validation into your relationship with a difficult estranged adult child, listen to the 4-part Validation series: Reconnection Club Podcast Episodes 198 through 201 ( https://reconnectionclub.com/198 )