🤷 What it means to have grown up with an irresponsible parent
Growing up with an irresponsible parent meant learning to be the adult in the relationship while still being a child, constantly managing the chaos they created and becoming the family's unofficial crisis manager.
You may have learned that basic needs like housing, food, and financial security were never guaranteed, creating a constant state of vigilance about survival. You became skilled at reading the signs of impending disaster - unpaid bills, eviction notices, empty refrigerators - and developed strategies to manage or prevent the worst outcomes. Your parent's inability to handle basic responsibilities may have forced you to grow up fast, taking on roles that should have been theirs.
You may have developed an extraordinary ability to handle uncertainty and fix broken situations, but this came at the cost of your own childhood stability. The unpredictable nature of your home life may have taught you to find safety in being useful and indispensable, learning that your value came from solving problems that weren't yours to solve in the first place.