10 Ways To Deal With Overbearing Parents

Overbearing parents can be difficult for a child to deal with. But there are ways to cope when you have parents who watch your every move. Here's how.

Having overbearing parents often results in a stale relationship with your parents. It may not be easy getting along with them when they have strong opinions and ways of asserting them. As a child of overbearing parents, you need to be able to strike the balance of respecting their wishes and pursuing what you want to, and that is the most difficult thing. To avoid friction and arguments the best you can, here are my top ten ways to deal with overbearing parents and keep the best possible relationship with them.

1. Have someone to vent to

In order to keep from exploding to your parents, simply have someone to vent to. Whether it’s a sibling, best friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, or even therapist, it is just a great way to keep your emotions in check when dealing with overbearing parents. Having a trustworthy and close person to vent to is beneficial to both you and your parents. It is a great way to keep negative emotions from being pent up and exploding outwards in uncontrolled ways that may make things worse between you and your parents. This way, having your emotions thought out and processed can help prevent fights from taking place.

2. Empathise with them

This is often a difficult one, especially when you feel like your parents are being unfair and forcing you into a difficult position. But the key thing to remember in this case is that at the core of all their impossible behaviour, their intentions are always in your best interest. So although that may not always be so obvious, just remember that despite their difficult methods, they still only want the best for you. Seeing things from their side can help you better understand them, and reduce the friction that comes from misunderstandings.

3. Don’t give up what you want

One common feature amongst overbearing parents is their strong opinions on how you should live your life. But despite your parents’ preferences and loud opinions on what they want you to do, it is important to stand your ground and not bend to their will when it comes to important choices in your life that you are passionate about. sticking up to them and being confident enough in what you want to pursue is hard, but going against your wishes and doing what your parents tell you to will make you miserable.

4. Open discussion

Keeping an open discussion and being up front about your thoughts and feelings, and having your parents do the same can reduce the number of misunderstandings and arguments you will have. Once you guys start discussing how you each feel, it is much easier to achieve empathy, understanding, and peace that will be the basis of creating a better relationship with your parents.

5. Work hard to build your life

This tip is all about playing the long game. Putting the effort to work hard in school or at work to build your own life means that one day you will break free from the control of your overbearing parents. The best way to break away from this toxic influence is to become independent, so make sure you work hard to build your own life that you are happy with.

6. Find common ground

Having overbearing parents can often mean that it can be very difficult to spend time with them. But in order to better get along with them, find some common ground. Whether it is going grocery shopping together, or going out to grab some ice cream, find that activity that you can still enjoy doing with your parents. Having that common ground that you have with them will ensure that you are still connecting with your parents and maintaining your relationship with them.

7. Get them to see your side

When your overbearing parents are struggling to support you on something, the best way to get them on board is to simply show them your side. If you are making a life decision that they are unhappy with, make the effort to show them your plans, your goals, and your aspirations to demonstrate that they have no reason to doubt you. They will never be able to understand you if you don’t make the effort to give them the information that they need.

8. Stay calm

When inevitable friction occurs with your overbearing parents, one of the most important things to remember is to stay calm and refrain from getting angry. Anger is extremely damaging, and will definitely have the opposite effect of resolving a conflict.

9. Take the first step

If you find your relationship with your overbearing parents rocky and set in its way, take the first step to break out of the vicious cycle. It’s not always fun especially when you are the child, but it is a huge move for you to be the bigger person. To take the first step to resolving a fight, or opening discussion, shows maturity on your part and will go miles in repairing the relationship between you and your parents.

10. Stay true to yourself

Just because you should never give up things you want to achieve or pursue in your life doesn’t mean it’s not okay to do something your parents want you to do. But at the end of the day you need to stay true to yourself, and never forget what you want in life because your parents should never be what’s stopping you from being the person you want to be. The key is to strike up the balance between standing firm on what you want, and maintaining a healthy relationship with your parents even if they disagree with you.