Do You Think My Ex Is A Narcissist?

Hey there!
I want to answer one of my most frequently asked questions:
Is it worth it for me to learn enlightened coparenting if I am coparenting with a narcissist?

Parents with pathological narcissism tend to engage in behavior that is damaging toward the other parent and children. It is not so much the loss of contact with the child that triggers them as their experience that that person should be available to them and is  not. They experience the loss of what the child provided to them.

These are the characteristics I see in these situations.

See if you recognize any of these characteristics:
Treat child as an extension of themselves, not as a unique individual with their own needs and feelings different from the parents.

Fighting over issues big and small.

Overreaction and drama to imagined slights.

When threatened with the loss of control over their own children, they look to the child to have their own ego needs for love and approval met.

Self absorbed and unresponsive to their child’s needs.

Deny you access to information

Give a child excess power and control to use against you

Wish to damage or torment you.

Take an unspoken pleasure in your pain.

Pathological amounts of envy.

If you are experiencing one or all of these items, I honor you for your willingness to face the issues and want to do some learning about dealing with them.

I believe that learning about Enlightened CoParenting can be immensely helpful to you.

As we learn how to maximize opportunities and strengths for our children and minimize risks and challenges, we are facilitating healthy adjustment for our child and providing them with strong coping mechanisms.

We learn emotion focused parenting skills in order to identify and respond to our child’s distress, to deepen our own relationship with them, and to teach them healthy relationship skills.

We learn communication strategies and dispute resolution techniques to counter the other parent's over reaction and drama.

We learn how to create really strong boundaries and teach our children to do the same as well as encourage age appropriate autonomy.

Enlightened CoParenting is especially beneficial if you are coparenting with a narcissist, if only to save your sanity and give your child important emotional skills.

Still have questions?
Just get in touch.
As always, I am very happy to answer any questions.

Take care.