The relationship between you and your parents is pretty significant and sets the tone for all future connections. Do you know that a bad relationship with your parents can have long-term effects on your love life? If you don't know how a relationship with your parents influences your love life, here are four ways to explain it.
Parenting shapes a child's personality and determines the basic building blocks of their psychological makeup. For example, a male child is born and immediately bonds to his mother. If he has a secure, loving and affectionate relationship with her, then he will love his wife the same way. A man's deepest feelings about his mother unconsciously transfer to his girlfriend or spouse.
The more inattentive your parents, the more insecure you might be in a relationship
Did you have neglectful parents? Did they leave you alone either physically or by being emotionally unavailable due to their own issues? If you lacked sufficient attention from your parents, you may cling to potential partners from fear of abandonment. You will be accustomed to having an underlying belief that the relationships that you need most will not work out in the long run. While you desperately want love and affection more than anything else, you are also terrified of letting others in to love you deeply.
The less emotional your parents are, the more reserved you will be in a relationship
If your parents do not show emotion or are not affectionate with you, then you might grow up feeling unloved. A recent study proved that every child wants their parent's attention, even if they can't express it externally. Eventually, they get used to being apathetic and inexpressive. Such a child will grow to be reserved when showing affection to romantic partners. In effect, your loved one even may feel ignored.
Having divorced or unmarried parents make you cynical about your relationship
Having divorced or unmarried parents usually makes you either cynical about marriage or excessively cautious, which in turn causes poor relationship quality. If you have an incomplete family or grew up in a bad environment, you will be hesitant to form your own family as you consistently fear for repeating your parent's fate.
The more you attentive and expressive your parents, the more social you will be
A recent study shows the link between affection in childhood and health, happiness and social activity in the future. It's clear that one of the most important things you need from parents is love. When you are loved by your parents, you know how to be more attentive to your partner. That unconditional affection from parents can make their child emotionally happy and less anxious. Moreover, parental attention can protect individuals against the harmful effects of childhood stresses. Thus, parent-child communication influences how open you are in a relationship. Expressive and attentive parents tend to raise healthy children who are comfortable expressing their thoughts and opinions.
Are you trying to analyze your relationship by observing your parents? Leave a comment below telling us what you've learned.