Shari B. Kaplan, a clinical social worker, offers a simple fix for the parent-adult child standoff: before giving advice, ask "Do you want my feedback or do you just want me to listen?" Both sides benefit when they ask first.
Here's a shout out to the young men and women who have been struggling with different mental health challenges, and you're trying to get your parents to let you grow up and be yourself, but they keep giving you feedback, giving you input. Well, instead of getting angry and snapping back at them, you might wanna recognize they're just trying to be helpful. So what about acknowledging Hey, I know you're just trying to be helpful. However, I really just needed you to listen. And maybe it would be better if when I share something with you, you can ask me, did you want my feedback or did you just want me to listen? And for the parents of the 20-somethings, maybe ask, do you need my feedback or did you just want me to listen? And maybe we can make this journey a little bit easier. As we're all trying to heal and move forward with life. I hope that's helpful.
