“Grandmother’s Shocking Haircut Sparks Outrage: Was It a Simple Mistake or a Racist Act?”
According to the young girl’s father, his mother thought she was trying to help
Image credits: Guillaume Issaly / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
The man banned his mother from future babysitting duties, causing family drama
Image credits: TinyPixiex
Image credits: cottonbro studio / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Grandparents are likely unaware that they are overstepping boundaries
As the story showed, the grandmother seemed oblivious to her overstepping boundaries. She genuinely believed she was trying to help and that she did nothing wrong.
As accredited trauma specialist and psychotherapist Tina Chummun tells HuffPost UK, such actions aren’t usually done with malice. Instead, it’s often unconscious, and can turn disruptive if left unaddressed.
But why does it happen, to begin with? According to Chummun, such actions are due to feelings of being “unwanted or irrelevant.”
“[It] can lead them to overcompensate, asserting themselves in ways that make them feel needed but inadvertently encroaching on their child’s parental role,” she explained.
Another reason could be that grandparents are asserting their authority and experience. In the same HuffPost UK interview, psychotherapist Sandhya Bhattacharya explains that they could be thinking, “I know better because I’ve done it before, so let me show you.”
Bhattacharya adds that grandparents may feel a “sense of competition” with their children, which may cause them to overstep boundaries.
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