“What if I think I did something that’s bothering them but they never admit it?” Some adult children estrange because they’re conflict avoidant. They don’t know how to handle the normal, expectable slings and arrows of family life, so they shut down, withdraw, and build up resentment until they don’t know any other path than to cut off the parent. Overall, this kind of child needs the parent to be a little more thoughtful about which issues create conflict and to ask about situations where there was an unexpected reaction.
