There are several factors that can prevent us from achieving our goals in life, several of them have already been the subject of many discussions: dilation, lack of clarity of goals, laziness . . . but there is one that is not well known and yet has one of the worst effects on your long-term happiness. We’re talking about the fear of letting parents down.
For many people, the opinions of others are fundamental to their self-image, but if there are two people in particular whose way of seeing us affects us, they are certainly our parents.
Therefore, some people never become people who might be for fear of not living up to their standards.
In this article we will study why the fear of disappointing parents occurs and what effects it can have on the development of life; In addition, we will see what can be done to work on it when it is present.
For most of us, what our loved ones think about who we are is very important, so to some extent, our self-esteem is based on the opinions others have about us.
Of course, this isn’t the only factor present, but it’s often very difficult to love yourself if you’re surrounded by people who think you’re not up to your homework.
In the case of our parents it becomes even more complicated, in general what they like is not what we want for us.
There will probably be many differences in opinions, tastes and personality between the two parties; therefore, sometimes we will have to make conflicting decisions and therefore run the risk of displeasing them.
At first, the fear of letting parents down shouldn’t make sense, their love is supposed to be unconditional, but it’s not always the case, sometimes the way they express themselves or treat us can make us feel that we can only count on their support if we do what they want.
According to psychologist Isabel Menéndez Benavente, parents want their children to have a good education, be competitive and have good grades, even demand a lot, not knowing whether or not they have the ability to achieve what they want and if they are not interested.
For some people, the mere possibility of losing their parents’ affection prevents them from doing what they really want. Each person will express this fear in a different way; let’s look at the most common ones below:
As we see, the fear of disappointing parents can affect almost any area of their lives. Fortunately, there are ways to solve this problem. In the next section, you’ll discover some.
Dealing with the fear of disappointing parents can be very complicated, especially if you still live with them, however, this will probably be one of the most rewarding actions of your life, in the end only you know what you really want and what it is. the best for you.