💔 What it means to have grown up with an unfaithful parent
Growing up with an unfaithful parent meant witnessing the fundamental betrayal of trust within your family, creating divided loyalties, secrecy, and a deep understanding that even the people who promise to love you most can break their most sacred commitments.
You may have learned that love and betrayal could exist simultaneously, that the people closest to you might maintain elaborate deceptions, and that trust was something fragile that could be shattered without warning. You might have been forced to keep secrets, caught between conflicting loyalties, or made to feel responsible for holding your family together despite the underlying dishonesty.
You may have developed a complicated relationship with trust and commitment, repeatedly giving chances to people who have proven unreliable because your early experience taught you that love often comes with betrayal. You might find yourself unconsciously attracted to partners who recreate familiar patterns of emotional unavailability and disappointment.