đŸ’” What it means to have grown up with parental alienation
Growing up with parental alienation meant living with an empty space where a parent's presence should have been, while learning that people who are supposed to stay can simply disappear.
You may have experienced your parent's absence not as a single event, but as the air you breathed—a constant reality that shaped how you understood relationships and permanence. You might have grown up with only one parental template, leaving you without a full picture of what balanced family dynamics could look like. Your understanding of love may have been colored by the knowledge that even the most fundamental bonds can be severed, creating a deep-seated fear that good things don't last.
You likely developed incredible self-reliance out of necessity, becoming someone who could handle life's challenges without depending on others. But this strength came with a cost—you may find yourself always braced for loss, holding back from getting too comfortable or attached because experience taught you that people leave. The empty chair at milestones and celebrations serves as a constant reminder of what was missing, while you wonder who you might have been if they had stayed.