CO-PARENTING WITH A NARCISSIST is often said to be impossible. A popular quote by A. Price asserts that “A narcissist will never co-parent with you. They will counter parent. They don’t care about the emotional damage that the constant drama inflicts upon the children as long as it causes emotional damage to you.”
A distinguishing feature of narcissistic family dynamics is dysfunction. The more malignant a narcissist is, the more they are prone to ignore healthy boundaries to satisfy their need for control. Narcissists think nothing of using their children to dominate and manipulate the other parent.
When co-parenting with a narcissist, children are frequently exposed to or experience psycho-emotional abuse and coercive and controlling behavior from narcissistic parents who seek to dominate the child’s perception by distorting their reality.
In many instances, children are made to navigate disruptive patterns of intermittent reinforcement, which highly narcissistic parents use to bring the people they target under their influence.
A narcissistic parent’s oppositional behavior and mischief-making can have serious consequences for their children who often struggle with feelings of chronic anxiety and depression.
Learn More About Co-Parenting With A Narcissist
For guidance on counter-parenting or co-parenting with a narcissist, order your copy of ‘Transcendent Parenting: A Workbook For Parents Sharing Children With Narcissists,’ by Michael Kinsey, Ph.D. at Amazon.com.
Further Reading
- 4 Ways To Protect Children From Developing Personality Disorders with Dr. Michael Kinsey
- 3 Causes of Parent-Child Estrangement in Narcissistic Abuse with Dr. Michael Kinsey
- 4 Subtle Ways Narcissistic Parents Abuse Their Children
- The Coercive Control of Children with Dr. Evan Stark
- 3 Effects of Narcissistic Parenting on Minor Children
Confidential support is available to anyone experiencing abuse.
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