Being a mom requires so much time, energy, sacrifice, commitment, and patience that yields little outside reward. The everyday routine, responsibility, and emotional weight can sometimes suck the life out of you. There are moments of pure joy and bliss where everything feels right.
No parent is 'perfect' - it's OK to struggle
It can be easy to blame any difficulties you have as a parent on your mental health problems, or to over-compensate by trying to be a 'perfect parent'. It's important to remember though that all parents have difficult times and there is no such thing as being perfect.
For some parents, infancy is the hardest. For others, it's toddlerhood. Some parents feel that the preschool years present special challenges.
Older parents are generally less at risk for depression than younger ones. Parents still in their early 20s appear to have the hardest time because they are struggling with their own move from adolescence to adulthood while at the same time learning to be parents.
They become quite independent as they reach 5-6 years of age, even wanting to help you with some of the chores! This is probably why most parents look at age 6 as the magical age when parenting gets easier.
Emotionally absent or cold mothers can be unresponsive to their children's needs. They may act distracted and uninterested during interactions, or they could actively reject any attempts of the child to get close. They may continue acting this way with adult children.
Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a mental illness and a form of child abuse. The caretaker of a child, most often a mother, either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it look like the child is sick.
By 2020, one-half of first-time mothers (53%) was aged 30 years or over. The proportion of first-time mothers who were aged 35 years and older increased markedly in this time. Before 1991, it was uncommon for women to start childbearing at age 35 years or older (up to 5%).
Geriatric pregnancy is a rarely used term for having a baby when you're 35 or older. Rest assured, most healthy women who get pregnant after age 35 and even into their 40s have healthy babies.
Mommy issues can result from both overly permissive and overprotective mothers. Some mothers are more focused on being their child's best friend rather than providing solid, structured maternal leadership.
What Is Mom Burnout? Moms experiencing mom burnout often report feeling intense exhaustion and disengagement or depersonalization related to parenting, such as simply “going through the motions,” rather than feeling present or engaged with their children's lives.
If your daughter feels unloved, she may suffer from several emotional problems. Symptoms can include depression, anxiety, self-harm, and more. These feelings are often the result of the way her parents treated her during her childhood.
Signs that your parent is emotionally unavailable
They respond to children's emotions with impatience or indifference. They avoid or prevent discussion of negative emotions. They're dismissive or overwhelmed when the child has an emotional need.
There are many reasons why a parent might feel unable to feel love for their new child, but all are remediable. The most likely reason for detachment from a child is postpartum depression. For many parents, detachment is a consequence of the defenses they developed to endure their own suboptimal childhood.
Mommy issues in women can sometimes manifest in the form of controlling behavior toward others. When your own mother is controlling, you may learn that it is acceptable to control others. This can cause you to be rigid in your relationships, expecting people to behave a certain way.
A boy with mommy issues may reject his partner when she comes to what he considers to be too close. An avoidant attachment style, fear of intimacy and stonewalling are also common problems for a boy with mommy issues. Spotting these red flags, in the beginning, is essential to making healthy relationship decisions.
A daughter's need for her mother's love is a primal driving force that doesn't diminish with unavailability. Wounds may include lack of confidence and trust, difficulty setting boundaries, and being overly sensitive. Daughters of unloving mothers may unwittingly replicate the maternal bond in other relationships.
Almost two-thirds of men are in a relationship with someone remarkably similar to their mother, a new study has revealed. The study, by dating site eHarmony, found that 64% of men go for women with the same personality traits as their mums.
When you label perfectionism or people-pleasing as a “mommy issue” and codependency or promiscuity as a “daddy issue,” you're perpetuating harmful stereotypes that assume men and women raise children differently (and dysfunctionally) based solely on their gender.
“Daddy issues” is generally a catchall phrase, often used disparagingly to refer to women who have complex, confusing, or dysfunctional relationships with men. It can describe people (most often women) who project subconscious impulses toward the male partners in their life.
There's a greater risk of premature birth and having a baby with a low birth weight. Premature babies often have complicated medical problems. The chance of having a C-section goes up. After age 35, there's a higher risk of pregnancy-related complications that might lead to a C-section delivery.