Chronically difficult people make your life miserable. If you had a Hijackal™ parent, you may not realize how that experience may still be impacting your life and relationships now.
They are so fearful–yes, they are fearful, contrary to the very confident exteriors they present–that they will make a mistake, or have to take responsibility for their actions, that they are continually both defensive and offensive.
Children born into homes where there is a chronically difficult person–aka a Hijackal™–turn themselves into pretzels to please their parents. They do it as an adaptation to survive. They do it before their developing brains have rational, linear, cause-and-effect capabilities. They do not know that they are making these adaptations.
Children who have had a Hijackal parent can go through life not realizing the impact that their early life had on them. That is such a shame because, getting some professional help to talk through and work through the issues arising from that earlier life can make all their relationships–and most particularly the one they have with themselves–so much healthier!
A HIjackal parent cannot help but mess with their lives of their children, too often, forever.