"Motherhood has a way of bringing up old wounds we thought were healed. Many of us have gone through adverse childhood experiences. We may not identify these as trauma or may minimize their impact on us as adults, but they may have a very real impact on the way we parent. Some of these can include personal experiences such as physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect. Or experiences related to other family members such as a parent who’s an alcoholic, a mother who’s a victim of domestic violence, a family member in jail, a family member diagnosed with a mental illness, and the disappearance of a parent through divorce, death or abandonment. They can also broader experiences such as racism, bullying, watching a sibling being abused, losing a caregiver, homelessness, surviving and recovering from a severe accident, witnessing abuse of any kind, involvement with the foster care system, involvement with the juvenile justice system, and so on. The graphic above indicates ways that unhealed trauma may be showing up in parenting. If you find that you relate with these and are frequently triggered by your childs behaviour I would encourage you to speak to a therapist or seek out some support. @postpartumsupportinternational has a phone or text line to help pair you with resources. Generational cycles and patterns of behaviour are broken through healing. For more awesome content on trauma follow my two favs in this space: @heydrjustine @drheidigreen Keep showing up imperfectly perfect ❤️" @_happyasamother
