Parents going to therapy helps children more than kids going themselves, says high school teacher

Ann Douglas, in her blog, shared that "Parenting is a two-way street." She further explained parenting is a shared effort from both children and parents, leading to a more wholesome outcome. This advice has been reiterated by Amy-Elizabeth Manlapas (@amymanlapas) in her most popular TikTok video, where she emphasizes that for children to get out of troublesome situations, it is also necessary that their parents also seek therapy. Here, both parties can improve their behavioral tendencies and help flourish the overall domestic environment. This, in turn, would be beneficial in getting children out of worrying circumstances.

In the video, Manlapas—a high school history teacher—is answering the question, "What's an unpopular opinion you have about parenting that might make a lot of parents mad?" She points out a Ministry of Justice study conducted in 2016 to back her answer with facts. She explains that the main subjects of the study were teens involved in the justice system. The objective of the study was to find out the impact therapy had on these youth offenders and whether it was able to keep them from committing any more troublesome activities.

The study concluded that therapy did not have any significant impact as the children receiving it were as likely to re-offend compared to those who did not get it. The study pointed out that the difference occurred when the parents of the offenders participated in the therapy. Manlapas said, "Kids stopped going to jail, they stopped getting into trouble, they stopped lashing out." She agreed with this outcome through her own experience as a teacher.

Manlapas asserted, "Most kids, when they are doing really bad stuff, it is because of something at home with the adults in their life. So if something is going on with your kid... I would get into some therapy and see what's up." Moreover, Ann Douglas, in her blog, reveals that both parents and children influence each other in a myriad of ways. Parents with a sedentary lifestyle become active if their kid is high-energy by nature.

The food habits of parents impact the food habits of children. Therefore, the suggestion that the behavioral patterns of children are influenced by parents does not seem to be far-fetched. Parents contribute immensely to the dynamic in the household and if they can incorporate improvement from their side through therapy, then it will automatically boost children towards positive behavioral patterns.

People in the comment section agreed with the points presented in the video. @sofia_yaya2 reiterated the sentiments and commented, "Absolutely! So tired of the 'they got involved with the wrong crowd of people.' That might be a factor, but it all comes down to the parenting." @kadeanselart pointed out the logic behind parents seeking therapy, "Kids can't improve if their surroundings are toxic. It's like giving someone antibiotics for an infection while they're living in a sewer." @pinkleglamp thinks her own life would have been better if her parents had gone for therapy, "I can't imagine how much better my life would have been if my parents were in therapy."