Flying Monkeys

(Photos courtesy of Scapegoat Children of Narcissist Parents….)

The scapegoat of the family gets blamed for everything, regardless of any guilt. Both parents, and the other family members around them, will gang up on their intended target, and push blame where there is none.

Siblings, and other family members, in this instance become more like flying monkeys. These flying monkeys are recruited for the sole purpose of casting blame on the scapegoat child. Family members don’t realize this, but they are merely pawns in the eyes of the narcissist parent.

These family members become a means to an end. The flying monkeys believe that they are special, or otherwise the favorite. They are wrong.  More often than not, it’s the middle child that gets recruited to be the flying monkey.

So, if someone burns the spatula, the scapegoat will get the blame, not the actual guilty party. Narcissist parents cast blame on the scapegoat child because of their inability to bare any responsibility for anything they ever say or do.

The flying monkey catches on to this, and is more than happy to join the band wagon by casting blame for their faults, towards the scapegoat of the family.

Envy has everything to do with what drives the flying monkey.  Of course, they don’t see this. They actually think they are superior to everyone, even though, deep down, they have an inferiority complex.

The narcissist parent knows this, and manipulates the flying monkey with crumbs of attention in order to entice them to lash out on the scapegoat sibling.

This goes beyond mere sibling rivalry.

In future posts, I will discuss the role of the golden child in this family dynamic, and further discuss the complexities of the narcissistic parent.