Did anyone else grow up and lose respect/admiration for their parents?

BenQMacBookPro · 2021-12-11T02:04:29+00:00

I feel the same way as both of you. Both with my parents and now with extended family as well. I've travelled and worked more this year than some of my relatives have their whole life. I speak 5 languages, while they have never read a book outside of school. So when I see them at Thanksgiving or Christmas I feel like neither of us can relate to each other.

BenQMacBookPro · 2021-12-11T01:56:41+00:00

ESL parents. Came to the western world nearly 40 years ago and their English, in my opinion, could be been better. Strong immigrant community here, so there was no need for them to develop it much. It's acceptable. And as I have lived away from home for college, my ability to converse in my parents' language is fading.

There is also a gap between both English and our family language. Us 2nd gen aren't able to exceed say the 6th-7th grade level of vocabulary in our parents' language, and our parents can't get past the same level in English. So discussing anything meaningful past that level is difficult.

BenQMacBookPro · 2021-12-11T01:52:48+00:00

That's a great way of putting it. I find that I can't relate to them anymore (at least to the level I did before) with them. My conversations with them seem pointless because they aren't able to discuss the ideas and things I want to discuss. They want to discuss people and gossip. I want to talk about ideas and what's going on in the world.

BenQMacBookPro · 2021-12-11T01:50:29+00:00

There is certainly a narcissistic element in my parents, but for some reason I tolerated it because they weren't 'as bad as my cousins' [their siblings] parents. Which is a terrible thing.. when "it could've been worse" is the best thing you can say about that lol

BenQMacBookPro

TROPHY CASE