Some of these dynamics are nearly unavoidable. However, too much of them and you get a child acting more like a parent than a child. This process is called parentification - and it's not good.
Single parents need to be aware of how much they are asking their children to be parental in their behaviors.
This can be challenging.
- In one sense, children can help with emotional support from time to time, however, too much of that is no good.
- Children should help with chores around the house; that's a good thing. They should be given reasonable and age appropriate tasks.
- Single parents must constantly be aware of boundaries, re-define those boundaries, and expand them as needed.
Certainly the dynamics for single parents are going to be different than in a two-parent hosehold, so don't expect them to be the same. However, being careful not to parentify your cildren is one of the important tasks of single parenting.
