Carolyn Hax: Only child resists mom’s idealism

While Carolyn Hax is away, readers give the advice.

On growing and remaining close to a child who has little in common with you:

I’m an only child who takes after my father and have settled in a city across the country from my parents. My mother had a very idealistic view of mother-daughter relationships – for years she compared my behavior to that of her friends’ children, sighed over my life choices, and generally voiced her displeasure that our bond “was not what it should be.”

This kind of talk only served to alienate me. I could no more easily change the way I felt about politics or religion than I could change my fear of heights or the fact that I love dark chocolate or bad horror movies. Of all the pressures to place on an only child, a parent’s criticism of a child’s essential “differentness” is so daunting because it demands that a child must change who they fundamentally have grown to become.

Over time, my mother has learned to slowly let go of this standard, but only because I made it very clear that her expectations were killing whatever relationship we had. We have grown stronger with acceptance, and I think both of us are surprised at how close we’ve grown. Don’t get me wrong, we still get off the phone angry sometimes, and there is a fair amount of tongue-biting and eye-rolling. But there’s also a lot of love.

I’d like to caution parents against holding on to the idea of a relationship. Please love and accept the imperfect, maddening, sweet, lovable, mysterious child that you have. Don’t waste another moment of your life or theirs with hopeless dreams and needless comparisons. The sooner you let go of the “lack” you’re holding on to, the sooner you can hold something real and true. – T.

On partners who expect you to serve as their ongoing intellectual growth opportunity:

I married A. just eight months ago, a second marriage for me and a first for him. We are both 66 years young. He brought years of world travel and success in the stock market, along with the knowledge of how to take care of his mother until she was over 100 years old. What did I bring to this marriage? I brought a love of God, family and fun.

A. took me to New York for the first time in my life and I took him to Macy’s to visit Santa, which A. had never done in his entire life. I brought him four handsome grandsons who think he is amazing and call to ask him how to fix things and make volcanoes with them (A. was a chemical engineer), and they make a grand mess in the kitchen when they visit. I am teaching him compassion for an abandoned cat who now allows us to feed her and take her to the vet. One of my daughters trades him cookies for odd jobs he does around her house for her, while her husband calls for advice every time his car needs a repair.

He plans our many trips to lands I have never been to, and I make the friends while we are there.

Everybody brings something to a relationship, and people need to value their own contributions. We are all worth a whole lot. – Life Is Good