Parentification
Parentification is when a child is made responsible for a parent's emotional or practical needs, taking on caregiving roles that belong to an adult before they are ready for them.
It comes in two forms. The practical kind has a child running the household, minding younger siblings, cooking, paying bills, holding things together because no one else will. The emotional kind is quieter and often heavier: the child becomes a parent's confidant, comforter, and steadying presence, managing a grown-up's moods and worries.
The role can feel good at the time. Being needed brings a kind of pride and a place in the family. But the child's own needs go underground, because there is no room for them, and they learn that love is something you earn by taking care of others. Nobody is there to ask what they want, so they stop asking themselves.
Grown up, this often becomes reflexive over-functioning and people-pleasing. You feel responsible for everyone's comfort, you find rest hard while someone near you is struggling, and a request for help is almost impossible to refuse. Seeing where the pattern started can loosen the grip of the belief that you only deserve care when you are giving it.