I don’t myself believe in actual child parts outside of a diagnosed dissociative disorder. (Unless they are on actual children, of course.) I think it’s almost always shorthand for something else (like insecure attachment, or the id, or in my case abandonment feelings).

I wouldn’t consider it a big deal or invalidating. I think una’s right and they’re not that different. I think thinking of it as insecure attachment might be more productive, too, so I think it was good he offered that.

It also explains better his question: why did the child part reach out to *him*? The child part could theoretically have been satisfied by the people he pointed to. After your parents he seems to be the major figure in your life that you have insecure attachment with. And he’d just failed to be in touch, so the insecure attachment with him kicked in.