The Many Ways That Parents Show Love

Show Notes: It’s healthy for girls to realize the many ways their parents do love them vs. lamenting the ways they don’t. Dr. Jordan describes the concept of ‘Ghosts in the nursery’ to discover the reasons underlying parent’s behaviors; link to previous podcast on ghosts in the nursery Reframing parent’s behaviors as ways they are loving their children is therapeutic and keeps kids out of anger, resentment, and feeling unloved. Examples of how parents love their daughters: Acts of service, doing things for them, giving rides, fixing things Working long hours to provide a good life for them Over worrying, micromanaging, and overprotecting are ways parents show love and concern. Being overly strict, asking 50 questions about their daughter’s life, putting a child up for adoption, and going right to fix-it mode when listening Parents with a different love language than their daughter may have a harder time showing love in the way girls prefer, thus the need to educate each other about your love language For lots of reasons, sometimes parents are unable to provide the love a girl needs in the way she wants it, and so it is normal and critical she finds other parent figures who can be there in the ways she needs at different times in her life For more information on how to support your daughter’s emotions and friendship challenges, check out Dr. Jordan’s online course, Parenting girls: The challenges girls face today with their feelings and friends and what they need