Post

In the 70s 80s 90s you just "moved for work" and never went home again, like I'm pretty sure there's a ton of movies with that exact plot due to how ubiquitous it was.

I'm have a theory that at least half of Americans had an ancestor who noped out of wherever the homeland was to avoid their families. We're a nation of parent-avoiders.

Also everyone is just more willing to talk about it. It used to be taboo to talk about having cancer, but that doesn’t mean there was less of it.

Back in the day simply moving across country was an excuse to end contact with parents- and moving to new cities was considered practically a sign of adulthood. But now with the Internet, distance is deterrence.

This is an interesting way to look at it

What experts?

>>Because whatever the individual case may be, they are all saying the same thing: ‘My mom is a narcissist.’ ‘My dad is self-absorbed.’ Gee I dunno WSJ, maybe their parents *are* narcissists and self-absorbed? And maybe forcing trans kids to act cis doesn't cut it in 2026? Maybe the parents suck?

Are young people discovering who is responsible for the shitshow they're experiencing? Are you going to cry about it?

Parents have always been abusive and otherwise terrible. It’s happening more now because social media allows us to see how people really feel. I know that s lot of people cut off their parents because they’re MAGA (or the other way around).

I see it as a sign of hope, folks becoming more informed and aware of bullshit and deciding not to tolerate it anymore. :)

Where are these media outlets finding authors with such imbecilic takes!? I cut off my mom. Her husband (my stepdad) molested me when I was a kid. There was an eye-witness at one instance. When the truth came out, she blamed me & stayed married to him. I owe her NOTHING. So, kindly f*ck off.

Why Are So Many Parents Driving Their Adult Children Away?

"Many experts" can suck it from the back

skill issue

If they were ACTUALLY experts, they’d understand why. GTFOH.

I hope he’s cold and alone.

It’s such an old epidemic that it might even be considered endemic.

Yeah… I got a variation of that from my dad. I don’t talk to him anymore.

I always love when people (my step-father) say things like "but she's your only mother" like that excuses the abuse. If anything that makes it that much fucking worse. We left for good reasons.

I’m so sorry you had to deal with that.

Absolute rag content.

lolk

Yeah, and they say it in this exact article, whining about divorce rates going up a bit in the 70s. You know, right when no-fault divorces became legal.

People are less likely to put up with shitty old relatives making their lives miserable. This is a good thing.

"epidemic" fuck off

How many balloon parents does this guy have?

You know, for someone that is now dealing with the medical fallout of being domestically abused and neglected by my dad for YEARS, the "epidemic" is self-inflicted. Don't be a shit parent, and your kids won't desert you.

Nobody is obligated to listen to your terrible opinions

When their grandchild(ren) is/are the first to say, “Good riddance,” then you know you raised your child(ren) better than they ever wanted to raise their own.

a lot of parents were absolutely horrible to their children, and those kids made a decision when they became adults themselves, to get the fuck away from their parents. I mean, if your folks are abusive, drug addicts, alcoholics, it makes sense. It’s what I did.

Many experts believe the parents are asking for this because they are self-centered boomer dumbasses.

Define epidemic

Have they tried not being cunts to their kids? Get me a report on that!

Have they tried not being abusive bigots to their family members? That would probably make their family more interested in talking to them.

"many experts" lolol sure jan

Or because a lot of parents are bigots abusive jackasses and the next generation has every right and reason to cut them out of their lives.

Or might not even be? Social media has artificially extended a lot of relationships, including family. Yeah my grandma didn’t “go no contact” with her mom - she just got married and moved to another part of the country and only saw her a handful of times after that. Same? Different? Better? Worse?

To the guy in the article condemning social media for not knowing an individual's specific circumstances - neither does he!! Blood is no reason to endure suffering at someone's hand. Odds are people have repeatedly advocated for themselves, and were ignored. And these people have "no idea why"""

It would help if fewer parents were assholes.

I'm sure the pandemic helped some people realise how much more peaceful their lives were with less of a parental presence. 👍

If you don't want your kids to cut ties with you, maybe don't be a shitty parent.

Wall Street Journal Next Issue New generation whines about not having money instead of working harder for sexy genius executives 5 years later Why people are lazy and not spending money to help precious struggling baby corporations

There's an epidemic of parents being radicalised and developing hateful views/personalities.

Yup well maybe a generation ago we just put up with it. Maybe that wasn't for the best.

probably because of the lead poisoning and media diet of nonstop propaganda

If they were decent, loving parents their children would still talk to them; and wouldn't be so quick to put them in a nursing home when they get old and sickly.

I was abused & neglected as a child/adolescent. Thought they might change as I got older. Nope. Never took accountability for their actions, continued to want to be terrible people with no consequences. Haven't spoken to any of them in 7 years. Best decision I ever made.

does this interview the offspring involved? like no I'm not gonna read it but this is a very basic question for literally *all* of the reporting about this

🖕🙄🖕

Because their parents have gone insufferably nuts?

It's because the parents are selfish abusers who refuse to change. Let's do something about that epidemic, huh?

Gee, I wonder if there's a specific marginalized minority group that this is referring to. I wonder if this is a euphemism for something. Guess we'll never know! /s

This shit enables child abuse not that you pieces of human garbage care

And no, you don't have to.

"Shifting family norms" you mean people finally understanding that child abuse is bad???

My parents divorced was finalized in 2022 and he still sends her threatening emails. Blames her for his kids not talking to him anymore. Just an incredible lack of self awareness.

Murdoch🙄

It's all this AND that the parents refuse to admit they were wrong.

Hey, parents - FAFO 🤷‍♂️

"Many experts believe that estrangements between adult children and their parents are becoming an epidemic in the U.S., just like divorce in the 1970s" The only "epidemic" of divorce in the 70s was from women finally being able to leave shitty marriages. This writer is a hack piece of garbage.

good, I'm glad. Bad parents deserve to be cut off

If by "shifting family norms" you mean understanding that as a child you are not required to love your bigoted parents? Sorry, boomer-billionaire-bigot-owned media, but the human rights for all world is leaving you behind! (and that's a good thing)

The entitlement dripping off of this piece. Sorry that in old age your adult children have had enough of your bullshit. Maybe you should have done something to address the relationship with your child before they cut you out of their life.

🤷‍♂️ Cops don’t read blogs.

I don't talk to my parents, so let me help you. It was because they were continuously harming my mental well-being and were incapable of admitting wrongdoing.

Hullo-- Boomer who was estranged from her toxic parent and his toxic partner here.

Yeah, we're at a place where if you're shitty you get cut off. No sympathy for the majority of those. Be a good person or get shunned, it's been that way for millenia.

Estrangements are happening because *those* parents voted for the worst pedophile conman alive so they can no longer be trusted to have good judgment in any form. Hope this helps.

Maybe destroying our communities and leaving children at the mercy of nuclear families with no guardrails turned out to be a really bad thing? What do you mean the generation that said "Sure you can advertise to my children directly" turned out to be actively spiteful of those children?

They could try respectfully listening and thinking about what they hear. Or, they can die, right and alone. I've only spoken to my mom once in the last 14 years, and that was by accident, and short, it's her choice.

"I have personnally experimented with estrangement when my kid went insane and asked me to not come to their houses unannounced and stop trying to break him and the evil woman who hypnotized him"

Ego death is scarier than biological death, I suppose.

Queer kids don't know a guy at the WSJ

Obvi. Because the queer kids were disappearing and dying, not turning to shriek on the internet and apparently Wall Street Journal reporters about how theyre not allowed to slip their allergic grandchild peanuts anymore.

It wasn’t “estrangements” when it was parents cutting off their kids for being gay. Where are your business articles about young people having to build a career and life without the safety net of a family to be there for money or even love and support?

"many experts" 🤣🤣 sure sweetie

"There’s this idea that if you don’t endorse or embrace my identity, you are no longer an ally." Yeah seems pretty obvious to me that this is correct.

I said, 'Bye, Bitch' to my father 23 years ago & haven't looked back since. Do I get a medal for being ahead of the curve ?

The phrase "Many experts" is doing some WORK my friends

WSJ epstein lovers upset that their children do not want to be near horrible people. maybe stop being abusive. hard for people paid for their awful opinions by billionaires, I know.

I did it at 15. All five of my Dad’s kids had nothing to do with him for years before he died. We don’t have to maintain relationships with people who hurt us. Even if those people are our parents.

it couldn't be the fact that I'm an asshole who set my grandchildren's future on fire. it must be woke therapy

Many experts believe that there is an epidemic of poorly substantiated opinions pieces being deceptively presented as fact despite a lack of evidence for the central claims of the articles in major American newspapers

Oh no, not the consequences of their actions!!!!

"Shifting family norms" like removing parental entitlement and enforcing expectation of communal support, a more common belief in child rights, and disdain for coercive parents? I suppose so. Weird wording to say that people are breaking patterns of psychological abuse as a society, though, kupo

Because their parents are part of a trump cult that has given them a personality disorder of conspiracy theories and abusiveness.

Shitty parent, wondering why their kids don't call: "must be that new therapist"

Let me solve this for you real quick guys. Millennials and genz have no future. It’s. OVER. This is directly due to the beliefs and actions of the previous two generations. And even now, they won’t let us take the controls and navigate our way out They insist on killing us all.

What’s up with this fuckass take?

An epidemic of people realizing they don't have to accept "but that's your [relationship]" as an excuse for shitty behavior that isn't being worked on or acknowledged

Hey so my parent emotionally and physically abuses me even as an adult, so maybe you should do some research on trauma before recycling this tired shit and stigmatizing survivors of childhood abuse.

this reads like an abuser wrote it lol "there's an epidemic of my victims standing up to me! this must be stopped at once!"

Yep! I've had fights with my mum and there's been times where I have to put my own life aside significantly in order to help her. It's inconvenient but she's my mother, and not only in name, so I'm not going anywhere. Loyalty is earned!

If my parents had not accepted and been as self reflective as they now are, I would never have acknowledged them again. There is a deep anger in realizing just how much I may have missed because they “didn’t want to label me.” They can’t change the past, but they can move forward.

(I don't know if anyone remembers the original iconic deadbeat dads post but I had to paraphrase it for this)

I cut off my dad because I don't talk to pedophiles

Have the parents tried not to be abusive, hateful bastards?

Sucks to suck.

-changing therapy practices. Therapists telling people to end the cycle of abuse, and that no, you don't have to put up with abuse because it's your parents, actually is a good thing.

The combination of Facebook that enables people to say shitty things, a political movement that rewards shitty behavior, and the rise of evangelicalism that encourages selfishness and says God wants us to be shitty is the answer. But nobody told them that family doesn’t have to deal with your shit.

Those parents chose Fox News simulacrums over their own families, they are the ones pushing their kids away, not the other way around.