Poll: Do you get along with your parents?

[Rin Little]

This is a question that I just thought of and it's set my mind buzzing. Now I don't have the greatest relationship with my parents. I'm an only child and I've had both of them breathing down my neck my whole life. I'm currently 22 and I still prefer to be as far away as possible from my parents. Which leads me to the question, how well do you get along with your parents and do you have siblings? Do you think having siblings takes some of the pressure parents put on you away since their attention is now divided?

 

[Philol]

I get along with my parents fine, there is a bit of tension at times, especially regarding my brother as he set the standards for me to live up too, but in his recent slow decent from their good graces pressure has certainly been lifted from me.

 

[smearyllama]

I do get along with them fairly well, but their erratic behavior is a little frustrating at times. My mom is out of town a lot, and she lacks the ability to just sit down and chill out. For example, I got her to watch Scott Pilgrim, but halfway through she had to get up and get more paperwork to do for lack of anything else to occupy her. My dad, on the other hand, has problems settling with the simple solution to a problem. He'll come up with a complex idea to fix something instead of doing it in a few easy steps. Like when our laundry room smelled. He decided to burn incense instead of simply cleaning the floor, which smelled because of our elderly dog, who spends most of her time in there.
Most of the time, though, we get along fine. We don't do a lot "family bonding" stuff, however. My mom and dad take exercise classes at their gym, and I just chill at home, and as I mentioned before, my mom can't really sit down and do anything not physically involved. In addition, she won't watch a lot of movies because they're "scary". She finds any form of violence, be it comedic like Scott Pilgrim or not, "crude and repetitive" in her words. While I get that, she's generally unwilling to try anything far separated from her interests.

So... You just got to read all of that. Sorry 'bout the wall of text.

 

[About69AngryMidgets]

I guess somedays are better than others. My moms forgetful, and dosnt really listen to what i say. She somehow gets the idea that my time belongs fixing and dealing with her bills and utilities. Hell she told me to stop college this summer so i could watch the house for her. Now i think since she realized that i am not the 'plays video games every second of the day instead of doing homework and find job' guy. You know that awkward moment where the parent cant accept that for the past six years (i am 19) that she was wrong about what i did with my time and dosnt want to say it. Thats kinda how its like right now, which puts it at neutrality for the moment.

 

[Rin Little]

snip

Actually that's kind of what I was after in all this. It's kind of like a lil experiment that I thought of to see if more people who are the only child tend to have worse relationships with parents than people who have siblings because the parents' attentions are divided, so any kind of explanation is awesome lol

 

[SilentCom]

I have 3 brothers (1 older, 2 younger) and generally get along with my parents. Sometimes I don't really like them or talk to them much but I won't fight with them too much either.

 

[C F]

Between my radically independent older sister and my ignorant, passive-aggressive 'scene' younger brother, I keep my dear old mum sane. I'm her confidant. I'm not going to go into what she went through along her path from child to parenthood, but I'm extremely grateful that I ended up a normal guy. Upon reflection, there were so many opportunities for me to wind up physically or psychologically scarred.

But I love my mom, and for her sake I'm not going to go around divulging any more information on internet forums.

Suffice to say, we get along. As for my dad, I genetically take after him. Of course he and I are cool with each other.

 

[Jharry5]

I've got a younger brother, and we both get along well with our parents.
Things got a little fraught between me and my Dad for a while between me graduating university and moving out to my own place for a number of reasons. Those disagreements have all but stopped now I moved out and there's a little space. Bring up politics and we're back to square one though - we're on opposite sides of the spectrum. Other than that though, me and my father get along (mostly) great.
Me and my Mum have always been very close. She's a little more laid back than my Dad, so there's less friction.

 

[smearyllama]

snip

Actually that's kind of what I was after in all this. It's kind of like a lil experiment that I thought of to see if more people who are the only child tend to have worse relationships with parents than people who have siblings because the parents' attentions are divided, so any kind of explanation is awesome lol

Hm. Interesting idea for a thread. Glad it's not just for the sake of a thread, and that there's a purpose behind it. Glad my mildly angsty explanation of my actually-not-that-bad life could come in handy.

 

[Kae]

Well I don't know what to classify it, you see I was the 3rd of 4 they had and I was basically the most independent mostly because I can't bring myself to ask for help, ever, so I was the one they basically put less attention to, because I was the one that academically had less trouble, and though I got in trouble with other kids practically every day (fights, though I never actually won one), I never really mentioned it to them, so our relationship was like, I ignore you and you ignore me, so I don't know whether that's a good relationship or not.
My brothers and sister seem to have more of a connection with them than me, but then again I kinda push everyone away, so I guess it's more my fault than theirs. So I don't know if that's good or bad.

 

[Gaiseric]

I get along with them to a point. My dad can get too preachy and my mom likes to guilt trip people. But they both can give good advice and at times can really be fun to talk to.

BTW I have two brothers.

 

[Random Fella]

I've never had a really big issue with my parents
I just respected them and was therefore respected in return
Really builds a good relationship when you just do what they say
And I have a sibling. Not really part of it but I felt I needed to specify my exact answer.

 

[WaReloaded]

I'm the oldest of three (as I have a younger brother and sister), and I get along with my parents quite well. Having said that, my father and I have polar opposite opinions in regards to certain things e.g. immigration, politics, sexuality, etc, but we understand each others differences...for the most part.

 

[Drummie666]

I have a brother. I get along well with my mother and I hate my father. True, he doesn't know it yet, but I do.

You should probably edit the poll for this kind of response. I really don't fit any of them.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

I love my parents. They are the greatest influence in my life. My father is basically the most supporting individual anyone could ever have as a parent, but he still has a spine about it. He won't let me get off with believing something without saying why. He's the reason I am such a proponent of reasonableness. I love my mother as well as she is one of the most hardworking individuals I have ever met in my life, and ridiculously competent at her job to boot. My parents are the best. Note, I do have siblings, but they are few years older than me.

 

[Vivace-Vivian]

One lives an hour away and the other married a sexist homophobe. Ah, the 'rents...

Nobutsrsly our relationship isn't terrible. But if I had to pick one family member to have for the rest of my life, it certainly wouldn't be one of them.

Horrible thing to say? Yeah... Yeah...

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I have a sister and I get along with my parents normally. They often annoy the shit out of me but we get along okay.

 

[NoOne852]

My parents have the same expectations for me and my brother, and we don't really get more attention then the other. I get along with my parents just fine, though there is a bit of a strain going on since my brother is kinda trying to shut them out and is being incredibly snippy with them and rarely says more then he needs to unless it is about something he wants to talk about. So do I get along with my parents? Yes. Do I get along with my brother? Sorta. We talk and don't fight, but I am not exactly fond of him currently, not that he knows that.