If you were the golden child in your dysfunctional family, be aware of how this role has affected your siblings and may still be playing a role in tense relationships with them. Don’t gaslight them when they share their experiences of your parents or their childhood, which may be different from yours. There may also be survivor guilt if you were well provided for and your siblings or other parent were not; therapy to explore that guilt and grief is also essential. Also be mindful that you do not perpetuate this intergenerational cycle by anointing one of your own children as a golden child.
