Narcissistic fathers harm children, but victims can rise up and guide their children to safety and healing.

Many victims lose sleep as they worry over the harm that their partner, or ex-partner is causing their children.

Narcissists are manipulative, covertly cruel, and unwilling to respect boundaries.

How can mothers help to protect their children from the toxic influence of a narcissistic father?

Anne Blythe talks to Rose, a member of the Betrayal Trauma Recovery community, about how she has been able to support her children in finding safety and healing, despite the abusiveness of their narcissistic father. Read the full transcript below and listen to the BTR podcast for more about the 5 ways to help the child of a narcissist.

How Do Narcissist Fathers Harm Their Children?

The claim that “he’s only abusing the mother, so the children are fine” is baseless and dangerous.

When children are around a narcissistic father, even if he never physically hurts them, the children will still suffer and need intervention and help.

Whether overtly or covertly, and whether it’s directly to the child or simply by their toxic presence in the home, narcissistic fathers withhold:

• Love
• Trust
• Support

from their children. As children are starved of natural nurturing and honest affection from their fathers, they can suffer some serious consequences.

Narcissist Fathers “Use” People, Including Their Children

As Anne from Betrayal Trauma Recovery explains:

What I’ve seen with narcissist parents is that, when they can use the children to make themselves look good, then great. But when they’re not actually being useful to their image or feeding their supply, in any way, then they’re just not interested in them at all.

Anne Blythe, founder of Betrayal Trauma Recovery

Narcissistic Abuse In The Home Affects Children

He was always angry. It was like walking on eggshells. I never knew when he was going to blow up, and I really didn’t trust him around the children.

Rose, member of the Betrayal Trauma Recovery community

Children of narcissistic fathers suffer, whether it’s visible or not. The effects of yelling, violence, manipulation, and the general feeling of “walking on eggshells” can create some serious roadblocks in the emotional safety and development of children

Rose explains on the BTR podcast that some of the most profound and tragic issues that arise are:

• High Anxiety
• Low Self-Worth
• Trust Issues
• Low Self-Esteem

Mothers Are NOT Powerless Against A Narcissist Father

Learning about how narcissistic fathers affect children can feel overwhelming to victims. It’s important for mothers to know that their partner’s abusive behavior is not their fault and that even though significant damage has been to done to their children, their healthy influence can guide their children to safety and eventual healing.

Narcissistic abusers condition their victims to feel weak, powerless, and ashamed. Finding safe support, practicing self-care, and, most importantly, seeking safety from abuse, will help mothers to overcome the faulty beliefs that their abusers have fed them, and begin becoming the guiding light that their children need.

What Can Mothers Do To Protect Children Of A Narcissistic Father?

Narcissistic abusers condition their victims to feel weak, powerless, and ashamed. Finding safe support, practicing self-care, and, most importantly, seeking safety from abuse, will help mothers to overcome the faulty beliefs that their abusers have fed them, and begin becoming the guiding light that their children need.

Rose shares five ways that mothers can help their children who are suffering because of the narcissistic abuser:

1. Inform their teacher or other caregivers if they need extra space or time because something impactful has happened.
2. Ask them if they need to talk to you or someone else, like a therapist.
3. Teach them about and help them set boundaries.
4. Provide opportunities for them to be around other adults who can be good role models.
5. Set boundaries for yourself around dealing with the narcissistic parent.

Betrayal Trauma Recovery Supports Victims of Narcissistic Abuse

Victims of betrayal and narcissistic abuse deserve a safe space to share their stories, process trauma, ask questions, and make connections with other women who get it.

The Betrayal Trauma Recovery Group meets every day in every time zone, and operates so that every victim can have the safe space that she needs. Join today and find a loving community of women ready to walk with you on your journey to safety.

Full Transcript:

Welcome to Betrayal Trauma Recovery, this is Anne.

I have a member of our community on today’s episode, her name is Rose. She reached out to me and wanted to talk about how narcissism affects children. We’re, specifically, going to talk about her experience with her narcissistic ex-husband and how that has affected her kids.

Welcome, Rose.

Rose: Thank you, I’m so happy to be here today.

Anne: We’re really grateful that you would take the time to reach out.

Before we start, I want to give a shout-out to all our listeners. We want to hear as many stories as we can, so as you’re listening if you think, “You know, I would want to go on the podcast and share my story,” please contact my assistant, Kari, at kari@btr.org. I want you to come on and share, so that other people can hear your story and also hear your insights into things that you’ve learned along the way.

Narcissist Fathers Harm Children

To start out, Rose, before you understood the situation, what was going on in your home and with your kids?

Rose: To start the story, I probably should have never married him in the first place. Unfortunately, I met him when I was 18, so I really didn’t know anything about narcissistic people or boundaries or anything like that, so he broke up with me a lot of times while we were dating and I’m not sure why I stayed with him. I think I’m a helping-type personality so I guess I felt like I could fix him or change him so that he treated people with kindness and respect.

We dated for 5 years, then we were married for 18 before I left him. After we had been married four or five years, because he went back to get a second degree in college, he didn’t help very much with the kids. He was always angry. It was like walking on eggshells.

“I Needed To Get Out Of There”

I never knew when he was going to blow up, and I really didn’t trust him around the children, honestly. I didn’t trust his anger issues and he also had attention deficit disorder (ADD) so if he was watching TV, he wouldn’t be watching the children.

Anne: Oh, yeah. Tell us about when you started recognizing that this was, perhaps, abuse or that, perhaps, he was a narcissist? Talk about when you started realizing that there was something really wrong.

Rose: I started realizing that it wasn’t a healthy relationship, probably when the kids were entering kindergarten. I knew that, somehow, I needed to get out of there, and I really wasn’t sure how. I saw the effects of his yelling on the kids. They were afraid of him. They never knew when he was going to blow up. They were afraid of men.

Help A Child Of A Narcissist By Seeking Safety

I had no relatives around, so it was really hard for me. I didn’t even consider it for a long time, but then, one night, he got really, really angry with the kids for breaking something and, when I tried to intervene, he almost threw a screwdriver at me and that was the breaking point.

I took my kids, I took some clothes, and my photography equipment—because I had my own business at the time—found a teaching job, and I left. We stayed, unfortunately, in the same neighborhood as him because I wanted to keep everything the same for the kids but, over the next couple years, it was quite a struggle for me to be teaching full-time and helping my children get the support and the help that they needed. All three of them had issues and probably their biggest issue was self-esteem.

Narcissistic Behaviors That Affect Children The Most

Anne: Talk about, from your point of view, why his behavior affected their self-esteem. The types of things he would do, the types of things the children would experience, and then how they reacted to it and how they internalized it?

Rose: Well, as a narcissist, he was always right. He did not listen to anything, really, that they said. He would call them names and belittle them. If they had a problem, he would just ignore it, or he would make them feel bad for even having a problem.

I remember, one time, my middle daughter had lice. He, literally, just ripped the comb through her hair because he was so angry at her for having that, trying to get the little nits out of her head, and just ripped out her hair in the process. You just never knew what was going to set him off. I think, because of that, they all have low self-esteem because they can never win over his trust and they never had his support.

Help A Child Of A Narcissist By Supporting Them

My two oldest daughters used to play field hockey and he never wanted them to play on a travel team. Once we separated, he wouldn’t go to their games and he refused to pay for any of that. He still really doesn’t go to their games. They just knew that he did not support them.

If they got a good grade on a paper. Even now, if they make the honor roll or if they’re in all honors classes, they don’t even tell him because they know that he just really doesn’t care. That lowered their self-esteem and made them feel not worthy.

The other thing that he does is he withholds love, if he gets angry at them. Normally, every night he says goodnight to them through a text, so he won’t text them goodnight. He’ll just ignore them for a few days or a week, and then it leaves them wondering, “Well, what did I do wrong?” or, “Why is dad mad at me?” or, “Why is he not communicating and saying he loves me?”

How To Help Children Of Narcissists

Anne: How have you helped your children?

Rose: Well, one of the biggest things I did, as a teacher, I work in a city school and I work with children who have been abused mentally and physically and I’ve had some trauma training. One of the biggest things that we learned is that, when the kids come in, no matter what their age, if they’ve had a rough a night, they might need to talk to somebody, or they might need to take a nap.

Whatever they’re dealing with, you, as a teacher, need to realize, “Hey, something happened with this child. They might not be up to steam today to do this that and the other thing.”

Enlist Others To Help A Child of A Narcissist

If my kids were having an issue with their Dad and it was something that made them cry the whole night before or they were just out of sorts, for whatever reason, I would email their teacher and let them know that, “Hey, this is happening with their Dad. Can you please keep your eye on them?” or, “Are they okay?” I would ask if they needed to talk to somebody like the therapist at school, which my kids really didn’t ever want to do that, but it can be helpful. Even in high school, I did that.

Anne: Oh, yeah. How old are your kids now?

Rose: They’re 18, 16, and 13.

Anne: Okay, and how often do they see him?

“The Narcissist Usually Has A Golden Child”

Rose: Well, they’re supposed to see him every other weekend, but the 18-year-old, now, is off on her own at college. Once they turn 18, in Virginia, where I live, they don’t have to have a set schedule. My middle daughter is supposed to go every other weekend, but she hasn’t gone in months because she has a job and she makes sure that she’s working on those weekends.

My son is the golden child—the narcissist usually has a golden child. I think he is the one that my ex-husband feels closest to, so he treats him the best. He buys him things, so he still goes because he’s only 13 and he can’t drive yet or anything.

“He Doesn’t Support Her In Any Way”

But my daughter that went to college, who’s 18, my ex-husband didn’t pay for anything. He didn’t pay anything for the dorm room. He didn’t buy any books. He told her he’s just not paying for any of it and he really isn’t. It’s like he’s just dropped her. He doesn’t support her in any way, which, of course, still affects her self-esteem.

Anne: Yeah. Well, because she’s not useful to him anymore, for whatever reason. What I’ve seen with narcissist parents is that when they can use the children to make themselves look good, like, “Oh, I’m going to take the kids to church and everyone at church will think I’m a good dad,” or, “I can take them to a family party” or, “I can take them to (even just the grocery store, walking up and down the aisle) people might smile at me and tell me, ‘Oh, you’re a good dad,’” or whatever, then great.

But when they’re not actually being useful to their image or feeding their supply, in any way, then they’re just not interested in them at all.

Rose: Right, it affects the children. I just feel so bad for any child of a narcissistic parent because I see what my kids are going through. They all have anxiety too, all three of them. It’s a long road ahead because all three of them are afraid of men and they’re all people-pleasers because they’re just dying for his attention, which really makes me sad.

Help A Child Of A Narcissist By Setting Boundaries

Anne: Talk about boundaries in this context. Both your own boundaries with your ex-husband, and if they have helped with your child situation, then also maybe some boundaries that you’ve either helped your children set or attempted to help them set.

Rose: I did not have boundaries. I am so sad to say that I did not even realize what boundaries were until a couple of years after I left him. I was just kind of in a fog. After you deal with a narcissist for a while, you just are sort of dead inside. I learned about boundaries through podcasts and through readings and I went to therapy for a little bit.

The boundaries that I set were that I had to not respond to him and try to not let him upset me. But what’s happened, in my setting of boundaries is that he won’t respond to anything, a text, an email, nothing. If there is a problem with the children it has to go through my son, which he puts the kids right in the middle doing that.

Help A Child Of A Narcissist By Being Open And Honest

With my oldest daughter especially, I have helped her set boundaries with him because he ignores her or tries to manipulate her. We have a very open communication in our family, so all three of the kids talk to me all the time, especially about him if they have an issue or a problem.

I will flat-out tell her, “Look, he’s trying to manipulate you. You need to stick to whatever your original plan was or tell him how you feel.” Sometimes he doesn’t react though, or he won’t respond to her. He’ll just continue to ignore her, but the fact that she knows that those boundaries are in place, I think is going to help her in the long run.

Anne: For sure. It’s interesting to me that, even when you tell a child, “This has nothing to do with you,” it still affects them.

Rose: Oh yeah, they internalize it, I think. Definitely.

Help A Child Of A Narcissist By Setting The Standard

Anne: Like, my no-contact boundary that I hold with my ex, I think it does help my children because I think they see that, “Okay, she won’t put up with this.” They may think, “Well, I have to right now, but there may come a time where I also can choose that I don’t want this.”

We had a really interesting thing happen at a baseball game. He came to the baseball game and then we were walking down the sidewalk and he was there, and I was there walking at the same time. That usually doesn’t ever happen. Usually, he’ll leave first, or I’ll leave first or something. My daughter, who’s four, was like, “Mom, this is my dad,” and she was like, “Dad, this is my mom.” She kind of thought that we’d never met before or something.

Help A Child Of A Narcissist By Living An Honest, Healthy Life

She was like, “Oh, my word, here they both are at the same time, in the same place.” To her, this was like, “Wow, this is the lady I’ve been telling you about, Dad,” and vice versa. “Mom, this is the guy I’ve been telling you about that comes to pick me up every other weekend.” I said, “Yes, I know,” until we got home. Then, I said to her, “I know him very well, I was married to him for a long time, and I choose, now, not to talk to him because every time I’ve talked to him it ends up hurting me, so I’m not going to anymore.”

She was like, “Oh, okay.” I said, “I will never talk to your father until he stops lying about what happened and he takes accountability for what happened, and he cleans up his mess. There will never be a time where we’ll get along or where I will talk to him because, even now, he still lies.”

Help A Child Of A Narcissist By Refusing To Normalize Abuse

They come home and tell me stuff he’s said that is a lie. I’m not going to engage with someone who is lying about me. She was like, “Huh, okay.” But I think that seeing that happen, she’s witnessed it now, because he was arrested when she was 11 months old. It’s all she knows because she’s four now. She’s almost five, so it’s all she knows.

But I think explaining it to her was okay. You know, I said, “When that happens, you’ll know. If he does stop lying or whatever, you’ll know. I’ll talk to him, at that point,” but it hasn’t happened yet.

Rose: How do you deal with that? Like, when my ex-husband actually sends me something, it usually sets me off because either the tone or just whatever he’s saying is not very nice. When you hear those lies, how do you not get upset about it?

Use The Gray Rock Method With Your Narcissistic Abuser

Anne: I think it’s impossible to not get upset about it because that’s another abuse episode, right. That email is him abusing you, yet again. The way I view it is that my wonderful father, a long time ago, wrote him an email saying, “We will not stand for you abusing our daughter. She is now blocking you on all of her emails, blocking you on the phone. You may not contact her directly ever, ever again. You will now go through me.”

I know a lot of women can’t do that, but that’s what happened. Basically, he’ll write back with, what I call “pseudo-nice but blatant manipulation” emails, like, “Oh, what can I do to blah, blah, blah.” He acts like he’s so nice or whatever but, really, he’s just trying to manipulate us, which we can see very clearly straight through it. We do grey rock with him and just write back a very simple one-sentence, “No.”

Help A Child Of A Narcissist By Keeping Communication Clear And Direct With The Abuser

One time, all kinds of problems happened because he didn’t write back within 24 hours, so he’s like, “What can I do? I think we should meet in person. We can solve this problem.” We just wrote back, “Write back within 24 hours. That would have solved all the problems.” That was literally the only thing we wrote back, just, “Write back within 24 hours.” That was it. My dad is really good at seeing what the actual issue is, like will the kids be picked up at 4:00 or whatever, and that is the only thing we respond to. We don’t respond to all the other stuff.

I think, that not having to see those emails when they come in is so good because they never forward them to me, they never tell me what’s in them. They only say what the action items are so that I can make a decision about, “Yeah, that time is okay,” so I’m never exposed to that abuse anymore.

I think a lot of women beat themselves up because they keep responding. I keep feeling bad, and you’re going to. There is no way to not feel bad when someone actively is abusing you.

“I Want Him To Acknowledge The Truth”

Rose: Yeah. Well, I think part of my problem too is that he did a lot of gaslighting, so something would happen, then he would deny it. I would keep fighting to get him to say, “Oh, okay I see your side,” or, “Yeah, you’re right. Of course, that never happened.” I’m still kind of like that. I want him to acknowledge the truth and it really drives me crazy. It really upsets me.

Anne: Yeah, me too. My solution, instead of saying, “Okay, it’s driving me crazy that you won’t tell the truth.” Instead of engaging in that, my patent answer is, “I will not engage with you at all, until you start telling the truth.”

How To Communicate With A Narcissist

One thing that is something to think about is, if you don’t have a third-party that can help out with this, you could limit it, in some form. You could block him on your phone, and you could block him on your email. You could block him and all of his family on all social media or whatever.

Then, maybe you could have one email that’s separate, that’s not your normal email that you use every day, that you could say, “Okay, this one I will check every day at 10:00 am and that’s the only way he can contact me,” or something. I’m not saying that’s the answer, but just cut down on the ways that he can abuse you.

Rose: Right. Well, I could do that if he was contacting me, but it’s more like the opposite where I need him to pay a bill, so I will send it to him or email him about it and he just doesn’t respond.

Anne: Which might be a blessing in disguise. If you’re like, “You know what, I’m not ever going to write him about money anymore.”

Rose: Ugh. Well, if only I had enough money to not have to worry about it.

How Can I Limit Contact With The Narcissist?

Anne: Right. Which perhaps, I’m no coach and I probably will give you very bad advice right now so don’t listen to me, but one might be, “Okay, I am going to stop trying to get blood out of a turnip. It’s just not going to happen so perhaps I will pray or meditate or manifest the universe or God or whatever to provide for me.”

There is an infinity of resources out there and I am going to stop trying to get it from him who does not want to give it to me and who is a pain and every time I attempt it, I am triggered. I am going to look for it from the infinite loving universe or from God in a way that will actually be a benefit to me and won’t be traumatic every time.

Help A Child Of A Narcissist By Practicing Radical Acceptance

I don’t know, but I wonder, if you let it go because you can’t get it from him, it’s not like he’s giving it to you. You’re just letting go of the hope that he’ll give it to you, which may enable you to feel more peace and forgiveness. Not forgiveness in that you trust him or whatever, but forgiveness in that you’re not asking for someone to give you something that they’re not willing to give you. That they don’t want to give you, which is just always going to be a recipe for pain.

Rose: I’m trying that tonight.

Anne: Meditate, pray because you never know what could happen. Say what I really need is a promotion or what I really need is a new job. I don’t need him to help me. What I really need is for me to be able to do this on my own.

Narcissists & Child Support

Rose: Yeah. The problem is he does pay child support, and I used to have a side photography business. I didn’t do a lot because I just don’t have time, but I did do a little so that my kids could play sports and I could pay for that, but he took me back to court twice to try and lower his child support.

Anne: Did he win?

Rose: Nope, he didn’t win.

Anne: The cool thing about child support is that it’s just an automatic deduction, right?

Rose: Right. I don’t have to deal with him for that.

Anne: Exactly. What I do also, now mine pays, which I am grateful for, but I have to give him receipts and stuff from things like that. I only do it every six months. I take everything and I put it all together and then my dad sends it in one email. I’m not sending it as payment for this thing and oh, pay for this thing. It’s just one big chunk every six months. That reduces contact, right? I’m just doing everything I can, even though my dad is sending it, I’m still reducing contact that way as well.

“His Energetic Self Could Sense I Was At Peace”

If you have someone who won’t write you back, in some ways, that’s great. Except for the funny thing, my guess is, that once you let it go and the energy between you, he’ll feel it, and he’ll get all stressed out and he’ll start writing you a lot of emails. I’m not sure, but I think narcissists can sense when they can’t jerk you around anymore and it really bugs them, so they sort of step up their game.

Like, two weekends ago, I was feeling so good. I sent my kids out and I was focused on what I wanted to do. I was feeling really positive and I wasn’t thinking about him at all, and then my kids came home and told me this horrific story of all the lies he told. Part of me is thinking, his energetic self could sense that I was at peace and he wanted to rile me up.

Help A Child Of A Narcissist By Practicing Meditation & Prayer

Even though I didn’t respond to him, I still think that energy is there. Meditation and prayer and just moving on without him is what I’m trying to do, so that he’s not part of my reality anymore and he’s not anybody that I really rely on. I’m not quite to that point yet, but I’m working toward it. 

What do you do for your full-time job?

Rose: I’m a teacher.

Anne: Oh, that’s great. Unfortunately, with teaching, which I was a teacher before, there is no, oh, you can get a promotion or whatever, but there are different ways to build your career. Going into administration or, you know, all kinds of things.

Narcissists & Social Media

Rose: Yeah, I can do things on the side. I mean, he has a girlfriend too, who’s very narcissistic as well, and I think she is a big problem. I also think she’s a lot of the problem, that maybe she searches for me or things that I do online and finds it and then that’s how they wind up taking me back to court.

Anne: Interesting. Yeah, I deleted all my social media accounts at first, and then I rebuilt them with blocking people.

Rose: They’re all private. I don’t know how she finds out.

Teach Children Of Narcissists That They Have Value And Worth

Anne: Yeah, it’s tough. With your kids, what would you want to do that you either can’t do or haven’t figured out how to do yet?

Rose: I would like to bring up all of their self-esteem and let them know that they are worthy. My oldest daughter, especially. I just found out she was insulin resistant this past summer and she’s always been worried about her weight. She’s not really overweight, she might be at the 90^th percentile or whatever for her height, but she doesn’t feel good about herself around all the super skinny girls that are out there today.

I wish that she would feel good about herself. I took her to a nutritionist this summer and I had an appointment with an endocrinologist. The nutritionist was before she turned 18 so he was responsible for a certain amount of her medical bills. It was expensive because his insurance didn’t cover it, but she had been struggling with this for so long that I knew before she went to college that I needed to help her figure out what was going on with her body.

He refused to pay for those bills, and how do you think that makes her feel? Once again, he’s not supporting her. It lowers her confidence again and just makes her feel like, “Why doesn’t dad support me?”

Help A Child Of A Narcissist: Tell Them They Are Important And Worthy Of Love

Anne: Because he’s a jerk. Is that what you say?

Rose: I don’t say that to her. I try not to. I just say, “I don’t know. I wish he would.” My middle daughter, too, is the most like my ex-husband, so she has a lot of anger, or she did. She’s getting better now that she’s 16 and everything is kind of evening out kind of with her hormones and things, but she also has low self-esteem. My son too.

I just wish that they knew how worthy they were of other people’s love and that they didn’t have to be people-pleasers to have people like them. That they should be able to be who they are, and you know, their friends will come around and figure it out. They’ll find other people that have common interests and be friends. 

“It’s Always Going To Be Painful, And It’s Not Going To Work”

Anne: I think that’s an important concept to teach our children. That you cannot—well, you can. You can repeatedly try and get something from somebody that they cannot give you, but it’s always going to be painful and it’s not going to work.

I heard this motivational speaker say this a long time ago, I have no idea who it was, but she said, “2 out of 10 people are not going to like you, so never ever worry about those 2 people. So many people spend all their time and energy focused on the 2 people that don’t like them, that they miss out on all the love and happiness and peace that they could get from the 8 out of the 10 people.

Only spend your time and energy on the 8 out of the 10 people that you get along with and you really like.” 

“Let’s Focus On People Who Do Like You”

In my specific case, I think it’s probably more like 6 out of 10 people don’t like me, which is fine. I focus on the four people that do and I don’t worry about the other six, because I find peace and happiness here, with my tribe. I am super grateful for our listeners who apparently like me because they listen. I’m so thankful and honored that you listen to this podcast, but I have found so much peace there, and I think that’s good for children to know too.

There is always going to be a situation where someone doesn’t like you. In your case, it’s your dad. Sorry. That stinks but let’s focus on people who do like you. Your grandma, your friend, your neighbor. All these other people are worth your time and energy because they’re actually great, and we don’t have to worry about the people who don’t like us.

“We’re Doing The Best We Can”

I have no idea what will happen in my situation because my kids are 10, 7, and 4, so that hasn’t really hit yet, but it will be interesting to see what happens when they’re teenagers. I have no idea, but I’m terrified.

Rose: Yep. That was about the same ages as my kids when I left.

Anne: Mine were 6, 3, and 11 months when mine was arrested. I am grateful that you came on to share your story today because the gist of it is, we don’t know, right? We’re doing the best that we can. You’re doing the best that you can. Is there some magic thing that we could say or do? The answer is no.

We’re just doing the best we can with the resources that we have. Hopefully, things will continue to get better. There may be some things, like if you read a book and you’re like, “Oh, this thing really helped,” then please come back on. Maybe some of our listeners have some ides.

Help A Child Of A Narcissist By Enlisting Coaches, Teachers, And Neighbors To Serve As Role Models

There is a Lundy Bancroft book that I recommend to everyone, and Lundy Bancroft talks about how to help your kids when they have an abusive dad. That might be a book that you might want to check out. But sometimes there’s not money or there isn’t a good therapist around or the narcissistic ex goes to the therapist and convinces the therapist that you’re the one who’s crazy. It gets a little tricky and it’s very complex.

Rose: Oh, I know. Well, one other thing too, real quick. I have found that some of my friend’s husbands or the kid’s friends’ husbands have been wonderful role models for my kids, also coaches. A lot of times, I’ll let the coaches know that if there’s been a situation where it’s a coach who yells a lot, I’ll let them know that that’s a trigger and my kids will just shut down if they get yelled at. It’s much better to tell them what they’re doing wrong and tell them how they can fix it. I’ve had some amazing coaches and some amazing dads step up and kind of take my kids under their wing.

“We Can Do This”

Hopefully, somebody will do that for you too, besides your own dad, so that your kids can see what a person who doesn’t lie or a person who isn’t a narcissist really looks like.

Anne: Yes. Yes, I hope so. We’ll see. The world is not perfect and we’re all just doing the best we can, and that is what’s hard about it but, as I always say, I will die eventually, and that always makes me feel better.

I don’t know if that makes you feel better, but for me, I’m like oh, this cannot go on forever. Good. I’m not suicidal, but it really helps me to know that there is a peaceful happy place on the other side where people, like my ex, if they don’t change, they’re not going to be able to be there because Heaven is a place of peace. I will be protected completely from him and any other person who is trying to harm me in the afterlife, and that makes it a little more, “Ahh, okay. I can do this.” We can do this.

Help A Child Of A Narcissist: Educate Them About Abuse

Educating our kids about narcissism and about abuse is also a good thing. It’s always going to help them. They need to know that it’s not them.

Rose: Right. I mean I don’t do that with my kids, except for the older two. I’ve just now started to do that because I feel like they’re not really old enough to understand. I don’t tell my 13-year-old that kind of thing. Sometimes I just tell them that maybe his dad isn’t making a good choice or that’s not how we treat people, or you know, a lesson like that.

For the girls, I send them quotes and things from Pinterest or Instagram that I see on narcissism, just because it relates to how their dad has treated them, so it can, hopefully, open their eyes. My biggest worry is that they’re going to find a boyfriend that treats them like that, and I, definitely, don’t want that.

Your Experiences Can Help Your Children Develop Healthy Boundaries

Anne: The cool thing about that, if that happens, there is a silver lining to this, is that they will be just like you and me. If they have a boyfriend who is abusive, they will then learn a lot about themselves, they’ll learn a lot about boundaries.

They’ll even start learning about their dad, so it may be a catalyst for helping them really heal and understand. It’s unfortunate, and, hopefully, they could get a catalyst to healing in another way, but that it may end up being a catalyst to that because that’s what it took for me to really understand it. It’s what it took for you to really understand it.

Rose: Right. Well, and it has taken so long to heal. I mean, I thought I was healed right after I left the relationship. I didn’t think I was that bad, but over time, after listening to podcasts and really working on myself and things, I’m still healing from that relationship and I don’t know how long it’s going to take. It takes a long time. It’s a lot of work.

Share Your Story On The BTR Podcast

Anne: It is. It is work, but, again, we will die eventually.

Rose: I’m going to say that to myself the next time something happens that I don’t like.

Anne: Yeah. Maybe it will help you feel better. Well, thank you. So many other women are having these same questions and going through these same things, so I appreciate your bravery to come and talk about it.

If any of you listening are interested in talking about the issues that you’re facing, you don’t have to have the answers or you don’t have to have it resolved or know what to do, but it still helps to know that we’re not alone and we’re all going through this together. Thanks for coming on today, Rose.

Rose: You’re welcome. Thanks for having me.

Betrayal Trauma Recovery Is Here For You

Anne: If you need support trying to figure out what to do or trying to figure out exactly what’s going on in your relationship, please check out the Betrayal Trauma Recovery Group. We have multiple sessions a day in multiple time zones, with professional Betrayal Trauma Recovery Coaches. We’d love to see you in a group session today.

Thank you to everyone who has rated the podcast on iTunes or other podcasting apps. I love seeing your comments and really feel supported and grateful when you comment, so thank you for doing that. Please leave a comment below; we love reading your comments.

You can also interact with us on Twitter @Betrayal Trauma, on Instagram @BetrayalTraumaRecovery, and on Facebook at Betrayal Trauma Recovery.

Until next week, stay safe out there.