I wouldn’t call it pathetic. Firstly because it’s an unempathetic and unhelpful response. I’m in my early 30s and it’s unlikely I’ll ever be not experiencing negative aspects of my parental situation. I was forced to learn to cope with it, I’ve done a lot of work on it, and I’ll likely continue to do work on it. The fact is that parents are one of the strongest, longest, and most culturally enforced bonds we have. They can be enduring and deep sources of new issues that can crop up through life. Furthermore they’re a relationship that we are supposed to reevaluate and reinterpret at every stage of life. I haven’t had parents in a long time and I’m still doing that as part of my continual growth and maturity.

Like yeah, at times it can feel weird and immature for me to see people my age beating themselves up for parental approval, but then I think about what it took for me not to, and how long after that I wanted nothing more. Who am I to judge their path?