20 tell-tale signs of a bad parent.

Parenting is hard. Treating your parents like their human is hard. Going to therapy to talk about your parents is hard. Despite that, many parents figure out how to have healthy relationships with their children. What if parents knew the signs of parenting going awry?

On a popular Reddit thread in the Ask Reddit Subreddit, Reddit users share what they think the signs of bad parenting look like.

1. heyitsvonage says:

They do not believe in telling your children 'no.' The world will and should say to them 'no' at times. They must be prepared for that reality, or they will be an absolute menace to everyone around them.

2. bothwatchxfiles says:

Your adult children don’t talk to you.

3. kenlycake says:

Using your kid as therapy and then getting upset when they have issues regulating their emotions.

4. JustinChristoph says:

Zero interest in the kid. Doesn’t care what they do or what happens to them as long as they don’t inconvenience them.

5. elizabethhill82 says:

Parents who can’t apologize to a child. It’s ok to have human emotions and moments triggered or struggle and lash out or be wrong but for the love of all things good, APOLOGIZE AND CHANGE.

6. Acetamnophen says:

Invalidating your child's feelings, struggles, and mental illness in favor of 'you don't know what struggling is' or some form of 'back in my day' or 'you kids are so weak.'You have just robbed your child of support, told them their feelings do not matter and informed them that you are not safe to confide in.

7. jdquinn says:

Just because you snapped a femur and have had countless other injuries that have tempered your pain response and ability to manage yourself doesn’t mean stubbing a toe isn’t that bad. A four-year-old stubbing their toe might be experiencing the worst pain in their entire life. Their stress isn’t relative to your experience; it’s close to their experience.

Stress can be viewed as the difference between expectation and reality. As you mature and learn the possible outcomes of situations, your expectation broadens to include conditions that aren’t ideal, and you know how to better deal with contingencies, mistakes, and outside influences. When a situation goes wrong, even the lousy outcome might not be that far from your expectation of how that situation could have occurred.

Kids have very few expectations, and their minds operate on principles of what they gain and lose and things like social influence and reward and punishment. But within that, the difference between expectation and reality for children is vast when their exact expectation isn’t met. Not until adulthood do we start to work on principles of right and wrong or legal and illegal. Some people mature into that earlier, some later, and some very slowly throughout their lives.

Your job isn’t to raise good children; your job is to raise good adults by teaching children to understand and accept the world around them, understand and carry their own self, and understand and get others.

8. ashton_yaste123 says:

Your kids never visit once they move out or go to college.

9. FERRARI308GTSI says:

Saying things like 'you're such a disappointment,' 'I wish I had a daughter instead,' and 'you ruined me and you're mother's sex life' this is stuff I heard for years.

10. RandomHeretic says:

Ironically, never think you're a bad parent.

11. Rhaenelys says:

'You're the reason I'm stuck with your father!'

Sure, mom, sure...

12. muted_npc says:

You blaming your own mistakes and regrets on your kids.

13. Ecstasiatee says:

You treat your son as the man of the house because you’re single.

14. Remarkable_Lie_9125 says:

Making your child think they aren't good enough.

15. aaasyyy says:

Telling your kid that you need them only for their money in the future.

16. Zeus_Hera says:

When it's Christmas, you're glad you don't have to see them. When the best gift they can give you is their absence.

17. ChickenBootty says:

Having too many kids or more than you can afford and raise yourself, so you make the older child or children take care of the little ones, so they stop being children because they have to be like a second set of parents. It’s not fair.

18. ChristinaOnassis says:

Leaving your kid home while the rest of your family goes to France for Christmas.

19. lu-ann says:

Using the saying: 'I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it.'

20. seekingadvice0319 says:

Comparing your kids to other children.