Was It Trauma or Did You Just Grow Up in the 80s?

"At a party we had at our home this summer, I was talking about a book I've been working on focused on the topic of parentification, or a role reversal between parent and child in which a child is forced to take on a parenting role, either emotionally, logistically, or both. Parentification can be considered a form of child abuse as it falls under emotional neglect (and may intersect with other forms of abuse such as physical or sexual abuse)."

"As people talked about the kinds of punishments they would get as kids, which by today's standards seemed pretty harsh, one dad shrugged, saying "That's just growing up in the 80s." Nods rippled throughout the group, and I wondered at how this experience seemed to be something everyone could relate to. There was a consensus that parenting, particularly the part that involves discipline, has changed significantly from the time they were kids to now, when they have their own kids."

"In the 1960s and early 70s, doctors led the way in identifying what was then called 'battered child syndrome', moving things from the medical room to the media. This shift pushed the federal government to enact the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, or CAPTA, in 1974 to protect children and allocate funding to agencies to address issues related to child abuse."

Parentification is a role reversal in which a child is forced to assume parenting responsibilities emotionally or logistically. Parentification qualifies as a form of child abuse through emotional neglect and can intersect with physical or sexual abuse. Many adults recall harsher disciplinary practices in the 1970s and 1980s compared with current norms. Recognition of child abuse rose in the 1960s–70s when doctors identified 'battered child syndrome' and media attention increased. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) of 1974 established protections and funding. By the 1980s, policy shifted toward reunifying families. Parenting practices are influenced by state and national policies, and multi-generational parenting benefits from effective communication across generational differences.

Read at Psychology Today