Toxic parents confuse a child’s bad behavior with a negative identity and have no differentiation between bad choices and a bad child. “If you think about it, parents are ‘on duty’ 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Dr. Bernstein explains. “The lack of time for parents to catch their breath and reflect can lead them sometimes to see their children in global ways. As a result, toxic labels such as: lazy, problematic, selfish, and inconsiderate can result in parents influencing their children to be locked into a negative identity. And labeled kids are usually fraught with frustration, hurt, anger, and resentment. They will be demotivated for making positive changes.
