Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents

This book on emotionally immature parents was life-changing. I learned to name parts of my emotional loneliness in childhood and understand more of the why. As a child of a refugee (my dad) who had fled to America from the trauma of World War II, I began to re-see my experiences with an emotionally distant father in light of his unprocessed trauma.

I was riveted by her discussion of emotionally immature parents. It seemed she could peer into my soul. A key quote is, “Understanding their emotional immaturity frees us from emotional loneliness as we realize their [emotional] neglect wasn’t… show more.

Legions of regular folks have grown up with parents or caretakers who were emotionally immature or unskilled. These family-of-origin deficits may or may not have met the criteria for outright abuse but caused lasting emotional harm to the kids. I love that this book uses clear language and validates the reality of countless readers.

A guide like this book explains unhelpful familial behavior patterns and explores ways to liberate the reader from automatically repeating dysfunctional history. Book clubs are springing up worldwide about this book. It’s also valuable to me in defining emotionally immature parents not as bad people but… show more.

There’s a reason this book remains popular and is “therapist recommended.” Many therapists, including myself, have found the content affirming to adult children wanting to heal their attachment wounds. The ideas and validation found throughout the book are healing too, and bring hope to adult daughters who now realize they aren’t alone in how they feel.