Kids Raised By Parents Who Were Madly In Love With Each Other Usually Carry 8 Habits Into Adulthood
voronaman / Shutterrstock Divorce is pretty common nowadays. Many kids grow up with parents who aren't in love, even if they stay together, despite the fact that the quality of parents' relationship with one another has a massive impact on their kids.
When a child is raised by parents who are madly, deeply in love with each other, they are more likely to develop several beneficial habits that serve them well throughout their lifetime. They know what they want and what they expect from their romantic partner, and since their parents had that, they know it is absolutely possible.
Kids who were raised by parents who were madly in love often carry these habits into adulthood
1. Making and keeping commitments
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Even when a couple is madly in love, that doesn’t mean that shows up in every second of someone’s marriage. Romance ebbs and flows at different points in a marriage. If a couple is married for a really long time, they probably don't feel madly in love every single second, but they stay committed to each other and work to keep their romance alive.
Their commitment to one another shows their kids that it is entirely possible to work through hard times when your partner is worth it. They see how their parents work to make their marriage happy, and they’ll want to do the same. They are often willing to stay committed to their partners rather than move on to the next person when they hit a rough patch.
2. Holding themselves and others to high standards
Parents who are deeply in love usually treat each other well. They’ll look after each other’s needs and act affectionately towards each other. When partners consistently treat each other well, it helps them stay in love with each other.
It also helps their children learn to have high standards. They see how their parents treat each other, and they won't accept anything less. They’re not going to be with someone just because they want to be in a relationship. They prefer a good relationship, just like their parents.
3. Taking care to resolve conflicts instead of ignoring or escalating them
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It’s been shown that kids who are raised in high-conflict environments can really struggle with conflict later in life. This can happen in two different ways. Either they believe that fights are the only way to solve issues and they become really aggressive in arguments, or they avoid conflict like the plague.
Handling conflict is a necessary life skill. Parents who love each other don’t fight with each other tooth and nail. Even if an issue isn't fully resolved, they won’t try to tear each other down just to get their way. This helps their kids understand how to handle conflict later in life. They can solve issues quickly instead of making them worse.
4. Actively cultivating both self-awareness and awareness of others
Parents who are self-aware often have genuinely caring relationships. They know when they’re in the wrong and won’t shy away from it. They take accountability and apologize to their spouse when they need to.
But that takes more than self-awareness. It also requires people to understand the other person’s needs. They think deeply about their partner’s boundaries and what they need to feel comfortable, which helps them develop respectful relationships and work through issues without them blowing up.
5. Taking care to show empathy to others
Happily married parents have been shown to affect their kids' social skills. When parents consistently show empathy to one another, they give their children a model for how to do the same.
For their parents to be so in love, they have to empathize with each other. Their child will routinely see them show that support and often display the same behavior with classmates. This fosters strong relationships from a young age, and the benefits don’t stop there. Those skills will stay with them, and they’ll typically turn out to be highly empathetic adults.
6. Staying healthy
Kids who grow up with happily married parents have been shown to be healthier overall. Many happily married parents keep their lives consistent. That routine gives their child the opportunity to go play with friends or join one of their school's sports teams.
These kids have less stress in childhood, which supports better mental health. As adults, they can also maintain those healthy habits, and they therefore experience behavioral or psychological issues at half the rate that kids of divorce do.
7. Being honest
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Honesty is essential in healthy, happy relationships. Parents who practice open, honest communication are more likely to stay in love.
Because they trust each other, they’re not worried about their partner hiding something from them because they’ve consistently shown they won’t do that. If one person does something wrong, they’ll admit it and take accountability. Most of the time, they’ll teach that lesson to their kid too. Even if they don’t say it directly, their kids will see how this strengthens their parents' relationship and mimic that behavior themselves as adults.
8. Staying open to love
When kids are raised by parents who don’t love each other, they may understandably lose faith in love and may not even believe that it exists. Without a model to show them how great love can be, many of those kids end up avoiding relationships because they don’t want to get hurt when it ends, which they assume it will.
Kids raised by parents who loved each other don’t worry about that as much. They’ve experienced it for themselves and will try to find it. They know that it’s real and are open to experiencing it.
Lily Bell is a college student studying English and Publications who covers relationships, mental health, and personal narratives surrounding the human experience.
