What happens to the child who’s always told to “be good” while all the attention goes to their sibling? They grow up invisible. They become the Glass Child.

In the third and final episode of our Parentification Series, I talk with TEDx speaker Alicia Meneses Maples, who coined the term glass child, about what it’s really like to be the sibling who carries the burden quietly. We go deep into:

• The crushing pressure of being “the good kid”

• Parents leaning on you like their therapist

• The silence and shame of having no space for your own emotions

• How it all shows up later in toxic relationships and burnout

• And what healing, boundaries, and acceptance actually look like

If you’ve ever felt unseen in your own family, this one will hit home.

📘Download our FREE, sibling e-book: 6 actions to help navigate a sibling’s substance use journey

🤝Join our FREE and PRIVATE sibling-focused community: Siblings For Love of Recovery

📲Connect with FLOR: Instagram and TikTok

🎙Guest speaker: Alicia Meneses Maples

Related content:

• Alicia’s TEDx on recognizing the “Glass Child”

• “The parentified child: Why they’re often the eldest daughter”
  

What if the version of you that kept your family functioning isn’t the version you want to be anymore? You might have heard the term, “cyclebreaking” or “breaking generational trauma,” but what exactly does that mean and how do you know if you’re ready to change and challenge how you’ve done things before?

Growing up in a family shaped by addiction, people-pleasing, and the urge to “fix,” I knew it was time to break patterns. In this raw and honest conversation, I sit down with Kate Nichols, a LCSW who focuses on cyclebreaking to talk about what that really means, and what happens to us—and our families—when we decide that the dysfunction ends with us.

We place a special emphasis on the role of siblings, their dynamics and how they’re impacted when a parent or other sibling struggle with addiction.

Together we unpack the guilt, the grief, and the slow, steady work of building a life that’s yours—not one you inherited out of obligation.

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• 🎯 This episode will help you:

  • Identify the role you played in your family—and how it’s still shaping you
  • Determine whether you’re ready to get comfortable with making uncomfortable changes
  • Practical ways to start tuning into what you want and need (instead of what others expect)
  • Discover what free or low-cost mental health tools are available to you

  • 
    

  📘 Download our FREE, sibling e-book: 6 actions to help navigate a sibling’s substance use journey

  🤝 Join our FREE and PRIVATE sibling-focused community: Siblings For Love of Recovery

  📲 Connect with FLOR: Instagram and TikTok

  🎙 Guest speaker: Kate Nichols, LCSW

  
  

  Related content:

  • “Beyond Blame: Family dynamics 101”

  • “The parentified child: Why they’re often the eldest daughter”

  • • Find affordable therapy through OpenPath Collective
    • 
      How to identify if you’re a cyclebreaker

If you were the kid who held it all together—the one who comforted your parent, kept your sibling safe, made things feel normal when they absolutely weren’t—this episode is for you.

In the first episode of our Parentification 101 mini-series, I sit down with therapist and author Whitney Goodman to talk about what it really means to be a parentified child—and why it so often falls on the eldest daughter.

We talk about the invisible labor kids take on in families affected by addiction and dysfunction. The emotional weight. The unspoken expectations. The way that "being the responsible one" can follow us into adulthood—shaping our relationships, our sense of self, and our deepest fears.

I share what it felt like to be the second mom in my family: the pressure to fix, to manage, to make everything okay—even when I was barely holding it together myself.

This conversation might stir up things you’ve kept buried for a long time. But naming it is how we start to loosen its grip.

Because once we see the role we were never meant to play, we can finally choose a different one.

🎯 This episode will help you understand:

• What parentification actually is—and how to spot it in your story

• The difference between emotional and logistical parentification

• • Why eldest daughters so often carry this invisible burden
  • How it shows up in adulthood as perfectionism, anxiety, people-pleasing
  • And how to begin setting boundaries, letting go of guilt, and honoring the child in you who never got to just be a kid

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  📘 Free sibling e-book: 6 actions to help you navigate a sibling’s substance use journey.

  Download here: https://www.forloveofrecovery.com/e-book

  
  

  🤝 Join our sibling support community: A private group for siblings navigating a loved one’s addiction.

  Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1001711494318102⁠

  • Share your story

  • Connect with siblings who get it

  • Access tools, support, and ongoing conversation

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• Follow us on social for more sibling stories and tools:

  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forloveofrecovery/

• • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@forloveofrecovery
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561542956095
    

• 🎙 More from this episode

• • Listen to our Family Dynamics 101 episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5dVDA080Dx8SjrDR0Wx5GK

  • Download Whitney’s parentification workbook: https://callinghome.co/topics/the-parentified-child-workbook

  
  More from Whitney's work:

  • Calling Home podcast: https://callinghome.co/blog/listen-to-the-calling-home-podcast
  • About Whitney: https://sitwithwhit.com