Category: Parenting

My last post, The Pain of An Absent Father, suggests ways to heal from the wound of not having a physically present and emotionally engaged dad. Another reason I believe we have a Crisis of Fatherlessness in America today is one many guys must resolve: their relationship with their mother. In this post, I describe the “Overly-Bonded with Mother” wound since it can impact his marriage, his children, and his friendships.   The “Enmeshed with Mom” Affect Also known as enmeshment or emotional entanglement, this wound is an unhealthy relationship that frequently lingers into adulthood. It develops when a boy becomes overly bonded with his mother as they share an intense emotional connection that blurs healthy boundaries into adulthood. This condition often starts with an absent or distant father but is inflicted by needy and hurting moms. It is also caused by “unwilling to release” types of moms, “fill in

Last year, I wrote in Addressing Your “Wounds” about how our past may keep you from living up to your full potential as a man. In this post, I dive deeper into the “Absent Father Wound”, which I believe is contributing to The Crisis of Fatherlessness I wrote about in my last post. The next post will then cover another factor that leads to becoming a better father: understanding the relationship with your mother. The Wounds Every Father Must Address In my early days of being a father, I participated in a weekly men’s study called The Quest For Authentic Manhood. The study’s creator, Dr. Robert Lewis, suggested that all men need to resolve one or more of the five significant wounds from their past to become better men. Dr. Lewis described these wounds as:  Dr. Lewis suggests that all men must unpack and resolve these possible wounds to become more