06/03/2026
If you’re a parent struggling with your relationship with your adult child, this may be hard to hear. In healthy families, there is a hierarchy. Parents hold more responsibility than children because they are the ones who created the relationship dynamic in the first place. That doesn’t mean adult children don’t have accountability. It means the burden of repair should not fall solely on the child, especially when childhood wounds, emotional neglect, criticism, invalidation, or unresolved family trauma contributed to the disconnect. Many adult children spend years trying to earn love, approval, understanding, or emotional safety from parents who expect them to do all the work. Healing family relationships requires parental accountability, emotional maturity, curiosity, and a willingness to repair. Parents don’t stop being parents when their children turn 18. At Glow Up Therapy, we talk often about attachment wounds, family therapy, childhood trauma, emotionally immature parents, and what it takes to create emotional safety in parent-child relationships. Repair is possible, but accountability has to come before reconciliation.
