Every parent wants their child to grow up happy and confident.
But sometimes random phrases, thrown out in moments of fatigue or irritation, turn into invisible wounds.
Psychologists warn that even fleeting words can distort a child’s perception, laying the foundation for fears and complexes that will manifest themselves years later.
Why can't you be like your brother/sister?
Comparisons with other children, especially within the family, make a child feel unworthy of love. Instead of motivation, this gives rise to envy, resentment, and the belief that he is accepted only for “matching” other people’s successes.
Over time, such children either lose their individuality, trying to please, or distance themselves from their parents, hiding their true emotions.
If you're capricious, I'll give you to some stranger!
Threats to “give away” the child or to attract “punishment” from strangers (police, doctors, fairy tale characters) destroy the basic sense of security.
The child stops trusting the world, and in adulthood this can be expressed in fear of any conflicts or inability to defend personal boundaries.
You will never succeed!
Even if said “as a joke,” the child perceives these words as a death sentence.
He begins to avoid difficult tasks, confident in advance of failure, and his self-esteem depends on the approval of others.
As an adult, such a person is afraid to take risks, change or take initiative, constantly doubting his own abilities.
Parents rarely realize how deeply the child's psyche absorbs every word. Phrases that seem harmless form an inner voice that sounds in a person's head for decades.
Replacing criticism with support, fear with understanding, and comparisons with acceptance is the only way to raise a child who will feel loved not for something, but simply because he exists.
