How To Deal With Uninvolved Parents?

Uninvolved parenting is a parenting style which is usually characterized by low responsiveness from the parents side. If they neglect the kids then it has a negative impact on the child’s emotional and mental health.

Parents who do not set boundaries or discipline with their children raise kids who receive improper nurturing. So how to deal with uninvolved parents whom you feel just don’t care.

Let us find out some characteristics of uninvolved parenting styles in order to learn more about it. Moreover, uninvolved parents neither respond nor demand. Some common behavior that uninvolved or neglecting parents show are:

Showing no warmth and love towards the kids
Not taking care of their kids’ needs
Not providing enough emotional support, motivation or encouragement
Not setting rules, boundaries or expectations on kids’ behavior while avoiding any supervision or monitoring
Not showing interest in completing their homework, activities or performance
Not involving children in personal decisions and lives
Skipping school events and parents-teacher conferences

Various researches have claimed that children who are often neglected in their childhood or grew up with uninvolved parents are 2.6 times more likely to neglect their own children as well as twice as likely to be physically abusive.

What Are The Causes Of Uninvolved Parenting?

Understand that those parents who show uninvolved parenting style or neglected behavior are usually the ones raised by similar parents. They are just repeating the same behavior they saw. Those parents who have had supportive parents in childhood but are still neglecting their kids, it is possible that they are struggling with their own problems like depression, anxiety, stress, substance abuse or other mental health disorders. 

The higher risk of negligence could be experienced by a kid when both the parents share antisocial behavior or going through mental health problems.

What Are The Effects On Kids For Uninvolved Parenting?

Children raised by neglected parents show negative effects like:

Due to lack of family support, kids don’t know how to deal with anxiety, stress and depression
They are emotionally withdrawn.
They have an increased risk of substance abuse.
They are likely to show bad or criminal behavior.
They are fearful in trusting anyone else or dependent on someone even whom they are close to.

Researchers have found that neglecting parenting style has a range of outcomes in various areas where their social and academic skills face impact. Children usually perform poor and lower than average in most of the areas of their life. They even show signs of deficit in cognitive abilities, attachment to others, emotional and social skills. 

Later attachments towards their spouse and kids raise multiple questions as they are not able to give complete attention to the family. As such kids see inappropriate behavior in their family, they are mostly found misbehaving in their own families later.

Are Busy Parents Uninvolved Parents?

Reading this article, some parents may feel that they are also uninvolved parents but it has to be understood that not all busy parents are neglectful. Some of them work in sectors which are highly time demanding and they couldn’t invest much time with their children. They can show their connection with kids through emotions, spending less but quality time with kids and talk with them on a frequent basis over calls.

How To Deal With Uninvolved Parents?

If you are a teacher, counselor or a guardian to a kid then this question on how to deal with uninvolved parents may help you. 

1. Examine the barriers stopping the parents

Instead of directly jumping to conclusions, analyze what are the problems that are stopping parents from connecting with their kids. It could be lack of vehicle that they can’t come to school, lack of a working phone or they are posted in some far away location. Some of the problems could be fixed if someone close intervenes.

2. Show some flexibility

If parents are not able to give time due to any unusual circumstances then you can try to include some flexibility in the routine. As a teacher, try to include additional schedules for parents-teacher meetings or ask them to arrange calls/transportation in order to support the kids’ mental and emotional health.

3. Don’t assume anything

Many times, guardians and teachers make assumptions thinking that parents simply don’t care without having a confirmation. Some parents may not care how a child is doing at home and neighborhood but they do care how kids are doing at school, performance and taking part in activities. 

4. Ask other people to help

It is quite possible that a particular set of parents are not comfortable in maintaining relations with a particular teacher but they have good relations with some other teacher. If that is the case, you can ask another teacher to initiate a conversation with the parents. You can even ask the child or parent to connect with a counselor to cut out the trauma of neglected parents and help the kid in growing positively.

Conclusion

We hope all the readers have understood how to deal with uninvolved parents through this blog. If you are consciously or unconsciously being an uninvolved parent then this article might help you in realizing the actions that cause problems in a child's mind. In case you are willing to develop a good bond with your child after reading this, start it off today. You can even choose to connect with a counselor or family therapist to sort the whole situation positively.