<p>cheers, you must have been skimming because I mentioned the exceptions of mental illness and the cases where nice parents have a kid go wrong for no apparent reason.</p>
<p>The OP was talking about why the parents of rotten kids are often in denial. We were talking about how that sort of parent (the permanently in denial “my kid is perfect” type) often sets the kid up for a problem. Great parents with screwed up kids are not typically in denial about it.</p>