There are so many different causes of a fractured parent-child relationship. There are obvious ones like neglect or a general lack of affection. Parents can also regret having children, making innocent youths the objects of their resentment. Sometimes, the child's juvenile delinquency turns what was once a close relationship with their parents into something riddled with conflict. Whatever makes a parent resent their kid, it's usually not the result of one incident but a combination of complex factors…right?
The mother-son relationship at the center of this story has been fraught since the day he was born. When this 21-year-old middle child was a teenager, his mother told him that he was born on the day of a much-anticipated book release for her. Instead of shrugging it off as an inconvenient coincidence, she resented him for ruining her day, being born on the "wrong day," and bonding better with her husband, who didn't resent him for inane reasons.