When we feel frustrated and exhausted with our child’s behavior, we may be attributing our feelings to the way our child behaves. But why do our children behave the way they do?

Often the answer to that is hidden in our own flimsy boundaries.

Lack of good boundaries in a Parent-Child relationship can lead to frustration, burnout, and even resentment. Very often we think children are the ones responsible for poor boundaries in our relationship. And when we think that, it makes us feel powerless to change that dynamic.

And yes, it’s true, children do have a poor sense of boundaries.

Why? Because they were born without them. Because of that, it is our responsibility to show where our boundaries are and teach our children to respect them. When we do that (meaning, when we protect our boundaries), we accomplish two very important things:

• We feel better (more empowered, grounded, and in control)
• We help our child develop a sense of boundaries

When we protect our own boundaries, not only do we help our child develop good boundaries for themselves, but we also help them accomplish a very important developmental task of shaping a Sense of Self. The Sense of Self, or a sense of being an individual, actually comes from having good boundaries.