Dear Parents Whose Adult Children Don't Talk To Them - It's Always Your Fault.

You were the adult when they were a child. If their first instinct, as soon as they get out from under your thumb, is to completely ignore you forever, you need to own the fact that you messed up as a parent at several, consistent, points along the road throughout your child's upbringing. They hate you for a good reason, and they're probably better off without you in their lives.<br><br>There are a number of forms of abuse that range from over-parenting, to neglect, over-discipline to straight up negative enabling behavior.<br><br>I have friends who don't talk to their parents because the strictness was so suffocating, and friends who don't talk to their parents because they were lazy bums who never took an interest in their child's life. There are tons of other reasons kids abandon relationships with their folks, but some of you persist in the delusion it's because of anything *other* than your own failings as a parent.<br><br>Redditors who've never been there will outragedly post their own stories about how they have perfect relationships with their parents, or how a ton of other people they know have perfect relationships with their parents. That doesn't matter.<br><br>The reality of the situation is that if your adult child wants nothing to do with you, you messed up as a parent at one (or more) of the several opportunities you had to be a cool, caring, considerate, parent.