The phenomenon entails people recognized inside on-line communities as narcissistic mother and father providing justifications or mitigating circumstances for bullying habits perpetrated by their youngsters or others. This may manifest as minimizing the influence of the bullying, shifting blame onto the sufferer, or framing the aggressor’s actions as playful and even obligatory for the sufferer’s development. For instance, a dad or mum may declare a baby’s teasing was “only a joke” or that the sufferer was “too delicate” and wanted to “toughen up.”
The presence of such defenses highlights potential deficits in empathy and accountability inside familial dynamics. These justifications can perpetuate cycles of abuse and erode the sufferer’s sense of self-worth. Traditionally, the minimization of bullying has been a recurring problem, typically stemming from a lack of knowledge of its long-term psychological penalties and an inclination to prioritize the aggressor’s perspective, notably when that aggressor is a member of the family.