09/30/2025
Narcissists will never co-parent with you. They will counter-parent instead, turning every decision, every routine, and every interaction into an opportunity to assert dominance and create conflict. They will manipulate schedules, rewrite agreements, and deliberately undermine your authority, all while pretending theyâre âjust looking out for the child.â But donât be fooledâthis is never truly about the child. Every action, every passive-aggressive comment, every emotional stunt is designed to provoke you, to keep you stressed, anxious, and questioning yourself.
They donât care about the long-term impact their chaos has on the children. The missed soccer games, the last-minute cancellations, the confusing rulesâthey couldnât care less. The childâs confusion, hurt, or frustration is irrelevant to them. What matters is the drama, the control, and the sense of power they feel when they can make you flinch, argue, or bend to their will.
For a narcissist, parenting is never about guidance, love, or nurturing. Itâs about control, manipulation, and proving that they can dominate every aspect of your life, even through your children. They will create unnecessary drama, pit children against you, and weaponize your love for them to keep you off balance. You may try to reason, negotiate, or appeal to logic, but it wonât workâtheir goal was never collaboration; it was always control.
Understanding this truth is painful, but it is also liberating. Once you accept that their actions have nothing to do with the child and everything to do with you, you can stop trying to âwinâ their approval and focus on protecting the children from the chaos rather than trying to change the narcissist. Your energy belongs to the children and yourselfânot to someone whose only measure of success is how much they can make you suffer.