Perspectives

The Roles We Inherit and the Freedom to Rewrite Them Families are very good at assigning roles. Sometimes nobody remembers holding the auditions. In my family, I accumulated a collection of descriptions over the years. I was the absent-minded professor. I was the professional student. I was the quirky dilettante. I was shy, maybe a little different, and generally more comfortable watching from the edges than marching into the middle of things. None of those descriptions was e

Sometimes a child becomes the problem that keeps parents from looking too closely at each other. This article explores triangulation, parentification, scapegoating, and the ways children can come to carry conflict that belongs to the adults around them.