Hi guys!!
I have been looking for a word to describe a mom/dad who wants to cut off the relationship between their son and daughter, and does it really happen? Does any of you experience any of this type of situation?
Disown.
If there’s an inheritance involved, use “disinherit”.
We don’t have a noun to describe the parent, but we use a verb and say the parents “disown” their children.
Yes, it happens sometimes when a son or daughter has very bad behavioral problems. Maybe the person is violent or financially exploitive, and the parents have to keep him away from the family.
I have also seen families where the one of their children is so mean to his or her spouse that the parents disown their own child and “adopt” the spouse. This happens a lot when parents have a son who is a wife-beater or a philanderer. They throw him out of the family and have a very warm relationship with his wife. It also happens with daughters who are horrible to their husbands.
To balance Jamie’s rather one-sided reply:
It happens when a son or daughter, at whatever age, dooes not do as the parents wish. Here in Spain, Euskara/The Basque Country, and Cataluña many parents try to force their children to study what those parents have decided they must. In quite a few cases, parents decide to disown children who do not follow their parents wishes.
It happens world over when unmarried young daughters get pregnant.
It even happens when a parent may him/herself has abused his/her child for years and then, in an odd turn of events, becomes disgusted not with him/herself, but with the child for allowing the foul act in the first place. Odd one, eh?
There are many reasons why parents decide to disown their offspring.
well, i understand all of you point, and here is another circumstance, a daughter or a son made one huge mistake, and then parents decided to disown them for that reason is this fair or not? what is perspective?
That doesn’t seem like an English grammar question.
It depends on whether the “mistake” was really a mistake. Some people do something intentionally, but when it comes out badly the call it a mistake.
Hi Janz,
What you’re asking now, becomes a matter of opinion. There’s a discussion regarding different viewpoints about this here.
It’s probably better to discuss opinions there, and keep this forum (as much as we can) to matters that can be answered concretely.
Feel free to join in the discussion on that page. If you’re asking for a separate vocabulary word for the situation you described, there isn’t one. ‘Disown’ or ‘disinherit’ are the general terms, covering all circumstances.
ohh Yes I forgot that in here only vocab that was my bad, sorry about that, thanks for the head up.