I did give them a call this morning and talked to them for about twenty minutes. The talk was cordial and basically just catching up. I didn't go into any deeper discussions. We don't really have anything to talk about. My mom's personality is shallower than the shallow end of the kiddie pool. My dad is a quiet man and doesn't have much to say period.

I noticed that my mom had to mention that she are using a picture of me and my daughter as the background picture on her smartphone so she could see my face every single day. Maybe I'm just too hyper-vigilant, but I perceived that as an attempt by her emotionally manipulate me. I feel that she was an emotional manipulator when I grew up and it didn't help me with the issues that still haunts me decades later.

I don't think they were intentionally negligent, but I definitely think their failure to take care of my emotional needs have scared me for life. I came into adulthood completely clueless about how to take care of myself and without most basic social skills. I'm in my 40s now and I'm still not able to establish and maintain real friendships with people. Never once during my childhood did they check up on my emotional needs and development. It seems like I was supposed to be there for them and to support them and not the other way around. My dad's idea of father-son bonding was to make me follow him around and participate in whatever activity he wanted to do. I never got any parental support when it came to doing something *I* wanted to do.

They visited me once more than a decade ago when I got married. The reason the give now for visiting me is that they don't have anyone to take care of their dogs. Their relationship with my siblings are also difficult. My sister moved in with the first man she could find to get out of the house and spent years in an abusive relationship.

I'm the youngest child and the FAVORITE in the family. Yes, my family was dysfunctional enough for the favorite child to take the first plane he could find out of the country just to get away.

Yes, guilt trips to call more often and come home to visit.

My wife have spent a couple of months with my parents, my sister, and my brother a few years ago. Her simple evaluation of my family was: "I am sorry to say this, but your family is F**KED UP".