Here's how to build a relationship with your parents as an adult

No parent (and no child) is perfect. The possibilities for your parents to have made mistakes in raising you are endless. It’s not a job that comes with a manual or how to guide. 

Their lives and decisions were informed by what they went through as children and adults, what they knew about how to raise children at the time, the work they had to do, the things they could and couldn’t afford, the political climate, their physical and mental health, emotional intelligence (or lack thereof) and so much more. 

In the School of Life essay titled ‘Coping with One’s Parents’ there are many useful takeaways, but in particular these statements: “In a simpler relationship with our parents, we wouldn’t keep trying to get from them things they had evidently shown themselves unable to offer.