Our experts had noted that if individuals who had been parentified, children who take on the responsibilities of adults, had less financial capacity, the pressure to help and provide for the family could have been exacerbated. This may be due to the fact that the increased financial strain leads to children feeling obligated to sacrifice their own needs for their family. This also aligns with Chua et al’s findings. (2022) wherein their participants placed emphasis on the fact that “to achieve family wellbeing, a family should have savings to rely on during emergencies.”

On the other hand, if children are not given responsibilities to carry or any opportunity to do so, contributes to the infantilization by their guardians, as their skills may not have fully developed due to the lack of opportunities. Infantilization refers to when teens or adults are treated as children despite being capable individuals, which robs the person of their self-autonomy or agency. This suggests that, financial capabilities aside, if families don’t balance their dynamic, personal autonomy, and financial capacity, it may inhibit their ability to grow and be independent.

Although money may provide opportunities and security in certain dimensions of our life, it is still important to remember that family relationships are a careful balancing act of remembering the practicality and reality of life while also keeping in mind the need of members to learn things, ranging from household responsibilities to their own wants and needs.

Ultimately, we wish to highlight how financial circumstances play an important role within the family, as it may influence how a member’s autonomy or emotional-well being is shaped. The presence or absence of financial stability in the family may affect a family’s dynamic, and may contribute to unhealthy relationships between members of the family, which we should be mindful of.