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Should You Still Have a Relationship With a Parent You Don’t Like?
It’s debatable, but I think it’s worth trying.
For a long time I used to make the effort to ring my dad at least every fortnight, I can’t meet with him face to face because he spends a large part of the year in Spain now that he is retired, so I thought it was important to maintain what contact I could. These fortnightly calls gradually lessened to every month, then three months and finally, they only occurred at notable yearly events; birthdays, Christmas, etc. It was always me making the effort to call, I can’t remember the last time I received a call from my father. But now I have joined my father in his radio silence — it’s been about eighteen months since I spoke to him last and at least six years since I saw him face to face. Recently, I have been feeling a growing sense of guilt at how little I care about this lack of contact — weeks can go by in which I forget that my dad even exists.
This feeling of guilt has led me to reflect more deeply on why I have lost contact with my father and whether I want to reconnect with him. This is an issue I feel very conflicted about because, to put it bluntly, I have never really liked my dad. However, by spending some time reflecting on this parental issue I have started to look at my dad in a different light and it is motivating me…
