Psychologist Reveals Parents Project Their Own Childhood Trauma Onto Children Who Resemble Them

What was said

"All I'd done was changed the way I perceived her in my head, that she's not little me, she's an independent person, she's her own person. And from just the micro changes that I made in the way that I related to her made such an enormous We just got on brilliantly. From that moment, I thought, 'My god, I've been putting something on her.'"

Host Davina McCall shares how a child psychologist helped her recognize she was projecting her traumatic childhood onto her eldest daughter who physically resembled her, causing relationship dysfunction. The psychologist pointed out the daughter had a completely different upbringing with stability, present parents, and security. Nedra Glover Tauab confirms this is extremely common, with parents comparing their children to themselves using phrases like "I wouldn't have done that at that age" without recognizing vastly different contexts.