Traits of narcissistic parents
- Completely self-absorbed
- Emotionally unavailable
- Extremely negative
- Completely unable to celebrate the accomplishments of their children
- Unable to celebrate birthdays, weddings and other occasions for their children (it has to be about them) and if they cannot grab the lime light they will proceed to sabotage the celebration.
- Pathological liars
- Extremely controlling (including the relationships of their off spring with siblings, family and friends)
- Highly critical of other people (even when they don’t know them)
- Know all’s (“I know everything that is worth knowing and if I don’t know it isn’t important”)
- Pathologically secretive
- Envious of their children and are constantly in competition
- They are careless with their children’s feelings, emotions and possessions (other people’s emotions annoy them and they hate to see their children happy, to the extent that they will give away their pets, favourite toys and anything they love )
- Are always right and if you don’t agree with them you are “wrong” and they will “correct” you
- Exaggerate their own accomplishments and achievements
- Do not listen to their children and will constantly push them away
- Lack basic manners, are rude and sneering
- Children can never do enough for their narcissistic parents and no matter how hard they try or how much they give their parent, that parent will never be grateful
- Their sense of “humour” is sarcasm and sneering
- They are manipulative and exploitative of the child in all ways
- Cannot stand to see their children being happy or joyful
- Will always sabotage it when their off spring are playing happily together. (They feel excluded and not the centre of attention)
- Will hold their children back whenever they can (by not letting them learn to drive, refusing to let them participate in sports, school trips or other social activities)
- Or they will push their children too much to make them look good (in their own eyes)
- They have absolutely no boundaries and will do things like walk into the bathroom when the child is bathing, read diaries, volunteer the child’s time and express opinions on the child’s behalf (to name but a few)
- They are stingy with money and time they are prepared to give their children (which makes getting attention from the parent(s) a competitive sort amongst their offspring
- They will encourage rivalry and bullying amongst their offspring
- They enjoy hurting their children and will get an evil smirk when they know that they have wounded their child
- Pathologically lazy and will see their children as their own personal servants who are there to do their bidding
- They will not allow the child to say “no”, if they child does say no they will just ignore them and force that child to do what they didn’t want to do
- Will show favouritism at all times