Family
For the difficulties that arise within families across generations. Posts here cover family therapy, parenting teenagers and adult children, failure to launch, the role reversal with ageing parents, the sandwich generation, and the generational dynamics that shape how families function.
The Parenting Treadmill: On Keeping Up in the School Gate Stakes
The social world of parenting in certain circles can reproduce the in-groups and out-groups of adolescence with remarkable fidelity. This post explores what the parenting treadmill actually involves and how to step back from it.
Dr Erin Reid
Jun 294 min read
Why Social Media Makes You Feel Worse About Your Own Life
Social media is actively designed to keep you scrolling and scrolling tends to make you feel worse about your own life. This post explores the psychology of social comparison online and what it does to mood and self-worth.
Dr Erin Reid
Jun 144 min read
The Treadmill life: When Moving Up Doesn’t Feel Like Arriving
Moving into a different social and financial bracket than the one you grew up in can bring a particular kind of pressure. The sense of a treadmill that never quite lets you stop. This post explores what that experience involves.
Dr Erin Reid
May 313 min read
Keeping Up With the Joneses: When Status Becomes a Family Project
Status and comparison can quietly become the organising principle of a family. This post explores what that does to parents and children alike, and what it means to step off the treadmill of comparison.
Dr Erin Reid
May 244 min read
The Work-Life (Re)Balancing Act: The Unintended Consequences of an Achievement Focus
The pursuit of professional success can quietly crowd out everything else. This post explores what happens when achievement becomes the primary focus of a life, and what tends to get left behind.
Dr Erin Reid
May 173 min read
Growing Up With a Parent With a Mental Health Condition: What It Leaves Behind
Growing up with a parent who has a mental health condition shapes a child in ways that are not always visible or named. This post explores what that experience involves and what it tends to leave behind.
Dr Erin Reid
Jan 113 min read
When a Parent Dies: Why the Relationship Shapes the Grief
Losing a parent is one of the most significant losses a person can experience, but the grief it produces depends enormously on the relationship. This post explores the different kinds of grief that follow a parent’s death.
Dr Erin Reid
Jan 44 min read
All Families Are Complicated (But Some More Than Others)
Many people grow up believing their family is unusually complicated. This post explores why that belief is so common, what it costs, and what it means to see your family clearly, without shame and without illusion.
Dr Erin Reid
Dec 28, 20253 min read
When the Tables Turn: Becoming the Parent of Your Parent
There is a gradual shift that happens between adult children and their ageing parents that is rarely spoken about. This post explores the quiet grief, the role reversal, and what it asks of us psychologically.
Dr Erin Reid
Dec 21, 20254 min read
'Failure' to Launch: Parenting Adult Children in 2026
Adult children in 2026 are facing a different world from the one their parents launched into. This post explores the psychological and practical dimensions of so called ‘failure to launch’ - including the role neurodiversity can play.
Dr Erin Reid
Dec 7, 20255 min read
Parenting Adult Children: When the Role Has to Change
The transition from parenting a child to having an adult-to-adult relationship with them is one of the least discussed challenges of midlife. This post explores what that shift requires and what gets in the way.
Dr Erin Reid
Nov 30, 20255 min read
When You and Your Teenager Don’t Seem to Speak the Same Language
Not every parent-teenager relationship is built on obvious common ground. This post explores what connection actually requires during adolescence, and how to find it when shared interests are absent.
Dr Erin Reid
Nov 23, 20254 min read
Therapy for Teenagers: What Teenagers and Their Parents Should Know
Thinking about therapy for yourself (or your teenager) but unsure where to start? This post covers what adolescent therapy involves, how to approach it as/for a young person, and what to look for in a therapist.
Dr Erin Reid
Nov 17, 20253 min read
Academic and Exam Stress: When the Pressure Becomes Something More
Academic pressure affects students of all ages and when it becomes chronic, it can develop into something more significant than ordinary stress. This post explores what that experience involves and when support might help.
Dr Erin Reid
Jul 6, 20253 min read
Family Therapy: When One Person’s Difficulty is Everyone’s
Family difficulties rarely belong to just one person. This post explores what family therapy involves, when it is more appropriate than individual therapy, and what it can offer.
Dr Erin Reid
May 4, 20253 min read
