How to Be 5% Less Allergic to Your Mother

Or anybody who's got you all stirred up.

Mother red fox and her baby in the forest, Canada. Source: Shutterstock

I always joke that the popular book, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, should be called Adult Children of Humans.

I would never dismiss the real challenges that people have with extremely challenging parents. It’s intense! But I’m always curious about what makes people more curious, or less curious, about the back and forth in a relationship.

Parents vary in their level of immaturity. But children also vary in their level of sensitivity to the parent’s immaturity. This is the variable that can be tinkered with.

I love to ask people, “If you were 5% less allergic to your mother (your daughter, your brother, your partner, Bob from accounting, etc.), how would you operate?”

Here’s are some examples people generate.