Quote:
|
I came out of the closet and it only got worse. He's not abusive towards me or anything like that but he never laughs when he's with me, he complains about his job, he criticizes me, and gets very angry at me for something as simple as changing the radio station in the car.
|
It really sounds like your father doesn't even know how to connect with people. His responses you describe here seem to reflect he is struggling with a lot of things he can't control. You are taking this challenge personally too, it's important that you understand his actual inabilities instead of gravitating towards him not caring about YOU in particular. Often when a parent doesn't connect that means that parent never experienced a connection themselves so they genuinely don't KNOW how to connect with others.
My brother, who struggled with experiencing a bad relationship with our father often will say "When my father failed me what I am seeing is not only him but his father standing behind him". This is often the case when it comes to experiencing the kind of disconnect you are describing. My brother made a conscious effort to change this so his own sons did not experience this like he did.