BOLTON, VT—Saying it’s important for parents to avoid simply passing their own neuroses on to their children, area mother Tricia Eakins told reporters Monday she believes in taking a hands-off approach and letting her kids develop their own psychological disorders. “It’s natural to want to help them as much as you can, but eventually you have to step back and give them the freedom to create their own hang-ups, issues, and complexes,” said the 37-year-old mother of three, explaining that she wants her children to be independent enough to think debilitating and self-defeating thoughts for themselves. “I’m not going to hover over my kids all the time just to make sure they have all the same anxieties I do. They need to have space to find their own obsessive-compulsive disorders, codependent relationship patterns, and addictive personality traits. After all, I won’t always be around to reinforce their pathological behaviors.” Eakins said she was impressed by her children’s progress thus far, as all three had already developed their own acute mother-child relational disorders.

Advertisement