I’m fully estranged from my father since 16 and have flirted with severing ties with my mother, with whom I have a contentious childhood relationship and an adult relationship punctuated with obvious favoritism displayed towards my “good” brother.

Both are certainly downstream of the “me generation,” in terms of how they’ve lived their lives and so I ask, “if you live for you, why should I pain myself to please you?”

Interestingly, neither my parents nor my wife’s parents have guest bedrooms in their 4+ bedroom homes. Yet they wonder why we seldom visit. There’s no question of their ability to have one, they have the room and the finances. They just choose not to.

There’s something fascinating with our parents generation.