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Old Aug 08, 2007, 10:27 AM
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Wants2Fly Wants2Fly is offline
Grand Magnate
 
Member Since: Jul 2004
Location: Southeast Florida
Posts: 3,355
Hi there -- We train our parents to behave in certain ways. This has been a hard lesson for me to learn. I started working with a therapist in my late 40s and throughout my 50s to find the words for establishing boundaries and to provide my mother with praise (positive reinforcement) when she demonstrates new, more supportive behaviors. As I say, I was already quite old before I started learning to speak up and mother is in her 80s.

Good luck with re-training your parents to respect. It may require moving out, as others have suggested, to establish yourself as an adult living your own life. I had been living apart for mom for decades before I started to speak up.
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