 Hello, dear viewers, and welcome back to part 2 of Signs You May Have a Toxic Parent. It's common sense to distance yourself from toxic people, but what if those toxic people are your parents? When you see them every day, it can be extremely difficult to get any kind of break. Even though you may not have had a choice to be brought up by the parents you have, you do have a choice in how you choose to react towards them. Also, here are six more common signs that could signal that you have a toxic parent. 1. They're manipulative. Toxic parents are masters of emotional manipulation. They have a way of twisting the truth so they look good while you look and feel awful. This can range from embellishment of a tale, outright putting words in your mouth to even exposing a secret of yours. They may also make false promises to get what they want out of you. This manipulation also allows them to exploit you as their love only extends as far as your usefulness, like a tool. Once you no longer provide a use, they stop putting in the effort of appearing to care. You may stand up for yourself to stop the manipulation, but then they might take you for a ride on the guilt-trip train, telling you you're a bad or ungrateful son or daughter for abandoning them. In reality, they're just angry that they weren't able to take advantage of you. 2. They blame you. Some parents are so toxically irresponsible that they blame their children for everything that they perceive has gone wrong in their lives. They then use this as an excuse to lash out at you for things that aren't your fault. They didn't get the career they wanted, well, that's because you were born. They're fighting with their spouse, maybe a divorce is imminent? Well, it's because they can't agree on how to raise you. You're such a problem. Did they lose their favorite pen? Well, you must have stolen it. You can see how ridiculous and toxic it gets. 3. They actively block you being happy. Don't take this the wrong way. Sometimes they're just guiding you onto a more annoying, but sustainable, productive path. That's not toxic or bad. With the toxic parent, this manifests as them ensuring you're always miserable if they can help it. This happiness blocker doesn't have to stem from severe situations like abandonment or beating. Just them putting a damper on everything is enough. If you dread seeing them or sharing any happy news with them because you know they'll just stomp on it, then you understand this is toxic behavior. 4. They're unstable. Instability in most situations is not positive. Toxic parents are no different. These parents may have weak boundaries of their own, lacking the capacity to stand their ground in several aspects of their lives or give guidance to the child. This results in waves of lashing out at the child for problems stemming from the parent's overly permissive habits. They let the child do whatever they want, then explode in anger when it becomes problematic. 5. They're overly critical and mean. Imagine, you feel good about finishing a paper. The toxic parent's response to you is to see a small error, so it's terrible. You start over double checking for tiny errors, and now they tell you, the paper you used is not white enough. Why did you change it? It's garbage. The critique given is also usually not constructive. Quite often, they'll also be mean about the perceived failure, preying on insecurities, calling you names or highlighting your flaws to prove you're not good enough. Watch out for this red flag. If it feels like you're facing a nerve ending staircase and are still being called a failure despite climbing several steps, you may have a toxic parent. And 6. They're severely abusive. Here is the most blatant and obvious sign of toxic parenting. When a parent, these people whose very roles are to nurture, support, and guide you, and they abuse you, they're toxic. The abuse can be physical, verbal, or emotional. It's all unhealthy and toxic, and you don't deserve that. Do you relate to or recognize any of these behaviors? Do you see or observe them in other situations? We know they're your parents, and from that status alone, you may feel they get a pass and forgive them, maybe change them, or even start over. Those of us with toxic parents have been there, we get it. Keeping a toxic parent in your life keeps your mental health at risk, possibly leaving permanent scars. You're not required to sacrifice your well-being for them. We know, as should you, that you deserve decent, respectful treatment. You're not to blame for their problematic behaviors, nor is it your responsibility or ability to change how they think or behave. We can only control how we react and change ourselves. If you'd like to know more about the specific dynamics of a toxic relationship between a parent and child, Psych2Go has created a playlist and uploaded videos on toxic father-daughter relationships, toxic mother-daughter relationships, toxic father-son relationships, and toxic mother-son relationships on our YouTube channel. If you haven't watched part one of this video, you can check it out by clicking on the link in the description box below. Thank you so much for watching and learning with us. Now, go remind yourself how awesome you are, and we'll see you next time.