A poll for cobalt's post: pependant child / dependant perent

All children, on account of immaturity, inexperience, and lack of personal resources (money) are by definition, dependent. As young people mature, hopefully the dependency decreases. Unfortunately, many adults cannot let go of the dependent role, and carries it into his/her adult relationships.

For many years, society fostered the dependent role on women. Their roles were circumscribed. Assertiveness and independence were penalized.

Since the rise of feminism, women have had to learn new roles for themselves, at first, often with few role models. Many could not traverse the conceptual leap, and reverted to older, more dependent roles.

(Egads, I sound like I am writing a school composition. I'm outta here! )

I voted "no".
A child's personality is pretty much set in stone, from birth.
Even though I didn't hear about "women's role" till I was much older, I remember standing up to my father and disagreeing with him, about minorities at age 7.

jeanbean- I think that there is a definite interaction between "nature" and "nurture". IMO, each child is "wired" differently. You can see personality differences in the hospital nursery, before the environment has the opportunity to impact on the child.

Nevertheless, everything else being equal, the way that the child experiences his environment, and how the environment relates to him, CAN and DOES modify what is already a tendency in the individual.

What I have learned, is that people tend to become polarized over the whole "nature and nurture" issue, often because of their religious or political views. I think that thinking one way or another is an over simplification of a very complex interactive process!

"Do dependant children turn into dependant perents...?

Not if they don't have any kids!

But a little more seriously, I think there are two VERY different types of "dependent" parents. Some parents become dependent and don't want to be. They just can't survive on their own. Others SEEK to be dependent. These are the same people who have been "dependent" on someone else their entire lives.

Im with you on that one...

Are we talking financial or emotional? Co-dependency is often just financial. It's really a combination of character and circumstance. Fate is often what puses us into dependency of some kind or another. It's also character than can change things if action is taken. Like all other character flaws, denial is the first thing one has to overcome. It's possible to be emotionally dependent on another person and not financially dependent and visa versa. The psychology of this is rather complex and often has to be handled by a professional. Dr. Phil, perhaps? BTW, I also have found myself intellectually depended on someone as a mentor or even as a peer who fortifies or is able to change an opinion or clarify a fact.

Lightwizard- We are now getting into a "chicken or egg" situation. Did the person put him/herself into a position, where he/she is dependent? What were the circumstances? Was the dependency purely economic, or were there psychological factors that brought the person to his situation? We could go around and around with this one.