Parents Who Want Relief Feel Like They Are Abandoning Their Adult ChildrenBehind that label, many parents share with me the long list of setbacks and pain their adult children have experienced. It's as if the parents wanting to personally feel less pain and pressure is a betrayal to their adult child, especially if that adult child is blaming their parents for their own life's struggles. I examined why wanting your adult child to need you less feels, to many parents, like a betrayal. That shift, from certainty to curiosity, is where I've seen the most movement happen, both in how parents feel and in what actually changes at home. The TakeawayIf there's a wish like that sitting in you, the first move isn't fixing your adult child.