Apr 23
Parenting a Pathological Demand Avoidant Child: A Dad’s View
Parenting a pathological demand avoidant child breaks every script I grew up with. Expectations in, cooperation out was the deal in the ’80s. With my son, the more I push, the more his nervous system panics. It looks like defiance from the outside; up close, it’s anxiety wearing armor. I’m slowly unlearning “won’t” and learning to see “can’t,” rebuilding our days around autonomy, trust, and far fewer power struggles. I wrote about what PDA actually looks like in our house, how it tangles with ADHD, and why the ODD label misses the point.
Parenting a pathological demand avoidant child — one dad's honest look at what PDA is, how it differs from ODD, and what actually helps.
