All parents have their blind spots. Just because a parent tells me that their version of the past is accurate doesn’t mean that it is. From that vantage point, helping the parent write a letter that empathizes with the adult child’s perspective creates a way to correct for the disparity in their memories or assessments. There are separate realities in every family: A parent can reasonably feel like they provided their child with good, even ideal parenting—and their child could still reasonably wish their parent had made different parenting decisions. Accepting the adult child’s viewpoint
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