How to Reparent Yourself: Raising the Inner Child You Once Were
What it means to raise the parts of yourself that never got to grow up.
Somewhere inside you is a younger version of yourself — still hoping, still hurting, still trying to make sense of things they weren’t ready to hold.
And for many people?
That child became the adult.
Just with bills, trauma coping mechanisms, and a better vocabulary for avoidance.
When Growth Got Stuck
Sometimes we don’t grow up, we just grow around the pain.
We develop adult habits without emotional maturity.
We perform independence while still craving permission.
We call it self-sufficiency, but really? It’s just what we had to do to survive.
There’s no shame in that. It’s adaptation.
But… it’s also an invitation: to pause and notice which parts of you have been left behind.
The Work of Reparenting
Reparenting isn’t about babying yourself.
It’s about raising yourself from the age you got stuck.
It asks:
Who was I expected to be before I ever knew who I was?
What did I silence to stay safe?
Where did I stop trusting my own needs?
You don’t have to have it all together to start.
In fact, it’s better if you don’t fake it.
You’re not here to “fix” your inner child — you’re here to meet them.
And maybe… for the first time… become the adult you needed back then.
A Small Step Toward Wholeness
Here’s a practical way to begin — The Age Check-In
Ask yourself:
“What age do I feel like when I’m overwhelmed, panicked, or ashamed?”
Then reflect:
What did I need at that age that I didn’t get?
How can I offer myself even one ounce of that now?
Even one small change, like setting a boundary, asking for help, or resting without guilt can be a way of saying:
“I’ve got you now.”
Because healing isn’t a return to who you were.
It’s becoming someone new with that younger version of you in tow — not erased, not shamed, but finally seen.
