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In narcissistic families, children can be assigned different roles: the scapegoat, who gets blamed and excluded; the golden child, who can do no wrong; the lost child, who keeps their head down and tries not to be noticed; and the mascot, who uses humour to keep everyone happy. Not every family has all these roles, and they can change over time. In my own family, I was the golden child, my oldest stepsibling was the scapegoat and my middle sibling was the lost child. When I got older and started standing up to my mum because I got so sick of how my older sibling was treated by their stepmum (my mum) , I became a scapegoat too, and my middle sibling became the golden child. The roles serve the family dynamic, and the unspoken rules are don’t challenge the parent, don’t talk about what’s happening, don’t rock the boat and don’t risk becoming the next target. Siblings may stay silent or go along with things because they’re afraid of losing their own position. Or as in my family they could also be violence. When you’re repeatedly treated as though you don’t belong, it’s hardly surprising you might grow up believing you’re unlikeable or unlovable. You spend years trying to fix yourself when the problem was never you.
Demi talks about being “locked out“ literally, but narcissist can do this to you mentally as well. Refusing to speak to you for extended periods of time over a perceived offence. When that happened to me I would lose access to my other parent so I learn to try my best to keep the peace and use the grey rock method which really is the only way to bore a narcissist into targeting you less.
2026-10-21 23:48:59