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Why Parents and Kids Get Estranged - The Atlantic

theatlantic.com · 2,563 words · saved by 1 readers

Both parents and adult children often fail to recognize how profoundly the rules of family life have changed over the past half century. This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. Updated at 4:51 p.m. ET on July 28, 2022 Sometimes my work feels more like ministry than therapy. As a psychologist specializing in family estrangement, my days are spent sitting with parents who are struggling with profound feelings of grief and uncertainty. “If I get sick during the pandemic, will my son break his four years of silence and contact me? Or will I just die alone?” “How am I supposed to live with this kind of pain if I never see my daughter again?” “My grandchildren and I were so close and this estrangement has nothing to do with them. Do they think I abandoned them?” Since I wrote my book When Parents Hurt, my practice has filled with mothers and fathers who want help healing the distance with their adult children and learning how to cope with the

This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. Updated at 4:51 p.m. ET on July 28, 2022 Sometimes my work feels more like ministry than therapy. As a psychologist specializing in family estrangement, my days are spent sitting with parents who are struggling with profound feelings of grief and uncertainty. “If I get sick during the pandemic, will my son break his four years of silence and contact me? Or will I just die alone?” “How am I supposed to live with this kind of pain if I never see my daughter again?” “My grandchildren and I were so close and

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