The way emotionally immature parents are in relationship with you is pervasive. The wounds they leave behind don’t have a clear “beginning” and “ending.” Though not all emotionally immature parents present the same way, they do tend to struggle with similar characteristics and leave a similar impact on you, their adult child.

Emotionally mature parents are typically nurturing and protective and are capable of setting structure and offering guidance. Emotionally immature parents, on the other hand, tend to struggle with one or more of these categories. They tend to be distant, rejecting, neglectful, highly critical, self-involved, or even abusive. Essentially, emotionally immature parents are as described: emotionally stunted and stuck—they are chronologically adults, but their emotional behavior, responses, and reactions come from a place similar to someone much, much younger.