Good intentions with bad results on a large scale are found in war, politics, policies, and more. On a small scale, they are found in relationships. They are found in parenting, friendships, and in Love.

Unfortunately, whether it is war, government, or people’s relationships, intention does not matter. The outcome is what matters.

People want to feel their loved one loved, supported, and cared for. That is the intention, but often their actions make their loved one feel otherwise.

People learn or pick up bad habits or actions from their parents, past relationships or other life events that unknowingly have a negative impact on their current relationship.

Whether you want it or not, your parents plant mental and emotional seeds in you. These seeds grow as you do. They are seeds of Love, respect and independence. But not all of them.

In many cases, they are seeds of fear, obligation, or guilt. There are many parents who act abusively towards their children, and such toxic behavior becomes consistent and dominant in a child’s life.

Almost all toxic parents say they love their children, and they usually also mean it. But Love involves much more than just expressed feelings. Real Love towards children is also a way of behaving.

What toxic parents call Love rarely comes up as nourishing, comforting, encouraging, respectful, valued and accepting behavior. Toxic parents usually do extremely unloving things in the name of Love.

That is how they cause great emotional damage to their children. Lost childhood, depression, anxiety, crippling feelings of guilt and shame, and low self-worth are some of the frequent effects of toxic upbringing.

On top of that, people tend to repeat familiar patterns of feelings. Children of toxic parents try to reenact their old, painful experiences in other adulthood relationships. A double damage is being done.

A child has no way to survive on their own. Children are completely dependent on their parents.

Without them, they would be unloved, unfed, unprotected, unhoused, living in a constant state of terror, knowing they cannot survive alone. Children need, parents supply.