re: Anyone else not on speaking terms with a parent?

Don't talk to my mom or dad.

My dad is/was a tugboat captain and was away from the house for most of my early childhood and my mom stayed at home. Their marriage was mostly miserable and they got divorced when I was 14 after 20-ish years of marriage.

After that point, both decided that they were pretty much done being parents and checked out. The one thing they had in common is that they treated my younger brother and I like property and constantly were trying to pit us against the other parent.

I decided one day that I wasn't going to play along. Since I didn't take her side, Mom told me when I was 18 and before I moved to college that "I'm not welcome in her house anymore"

Dad basically disappeared off the face of the earth. He blocked my phone number and all social media. I learned that several years later that he moved a few states over and started a new family.

Part of me misses them, but I also recognize that both are huge POS in their own unique ways and that I'm better off without them.