Why Trinidad and Tobago's children are unhappy

THE EDITOR: Our children appear to be unhappy. Why is that? Here is how I see it:

Constant criticism masked as helping them to improve.

Love that feels conditional – not like a given.

Emotional invalidation – you are over-reacting, it is nothing.

Excessive control – when every decision is already made.

Emotional absence – being there but not really there.

Using fear, guilt, shame as tools.

Treating siblings like a built-in competition.

Refusing to apologise or repair after hurting the child.

Making the child responsible for the parents' emotions.

Sheep do not make goat. The egg does not fall far from the nest. Parenting is an attitude.

AV RAMPERSAD

Princes Town