Causes of Conflict Between a Parent and Child

Causes of Conflict between a Parent and Child Parents can influence their children in an extremely powerful way. Growing up a child observes and learns by example. A child grows based on their environment and their genetic traits. This puts a lot of importance on how a person is raised and their relationship with their parents. The behavior of a parent can directly cause a child to act a certain way if they were raised in a single mother family, their parents were addicts or if they lived in an abusive household. Being a single mother can have severe obstacles and cause great stress. The stress can come from divorce; the mother may also be going through custody battles due to that. The mother may not give the child as much attention because she is so focused on the situation. This may cause the child to act out in school or elsewhere to get the attention or affection he is not getting at home. But, it can also be the opposite way, the parent may give the child attention but since there is no father figure around the child may still act out, being disobedient and disrespectful to the mother. If the child is a female this causes her to seek males to fill the empty space of having a male figure in her life for that affection. This can allow her to be vulnerable to be taking advantage of. Most likely the mother disagrees with it but of course the daughter will continue to have relations with the guy until she learns for her self later in life. Being the child of a parent who is an addict can also cause conflict because the child may become very depressed. The child has a high risk of doing the same thing because it is genetic yet also in their environment they are living in. There is no communication between the parent and child and there is also an extreme lack of parenting. The parent may never be home which causes the child to basically take on the responsibility of learning things on their own and taking care of their self. If the child is a male he may become a victim to the streets. He will become introverted, quiet similar to the Nicholas Lindsey, the sixteen year old accused of killing a police officer and when put into a tough or unexpected situation he will act out. Being that he has been holding all these things in for so long the moment something happens he releases all of those feelings on an innocent person .The parent may end up in jail due to drug use causing the child to be put up for adoption or live with family, which is sometimes not good because a child looks at the person as they are not their biological parent so they may feel they don’t have to listen or obey their rules. In return children most likely will runaway. The majority of the time it is females who act out this way. Infants are usually left at a hospital or automatically given up for adoption at birth. Abuse is another cause of conflict whether it is physical meaning directly coming in contact with them to hurt them such as hitting, slapping, whipping, emotional meaning the parent continuously talks bad about the child, calling them names and yelling at them or it can be neglect meaning the parent fails to provide for the child completely. All this causes the child to have trust issues because not too many children who can not trust their own parents trust others easily. A son may see his father abusing his mother and begin to do the same to his mother and other women. He most likely will have a short temper and be aggressive and controlling. He can also take the positive route and grow up to respect woman and be a gentleman. Most boys will stand up for their mother; this then causes the son and father not to get along. Most children who go through this take it as a life lesson of what not to do because they see it makes their parent feel sadness. As a result the child may become a mentor of some kind. It does not always have to be the child that causes conflict between a parent and child. But either way it goes it is not right. A parent is supposed to be there to nourish and provide for their child. In return a child should respect and obey their parents. This will reduce the conflict and allow room for more happiness in a parent and child’s life and relationship with each other.