AZCentral addresses the problem of children not liking their parents.
Gregory Ramey writes (excerpt):
In spite of such turmoil, children overwhelmingly feel toward their parents the same way parents feel toward their children – an intense bond of love.
However, some children don’t like their parents. These young people never seem to emotionally connect with one or both of their parents.
Teens talk about having nothing in common with their parents, feeling like an outsider in the family, or wondering if their parents ever really wanted them.
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I’ve never had much clinical success in trying to figure out the cause of the problem when children don’t feel emotionally connected to a parent. Instead, I ask both the parent and child to put aside the past and focus on the present. Get to know each other. Do some things together. Make an effort to reconnect.
Many parents are willing to make that effort, but some teens are not. They speak endlessly about their friends and fantasize how life will be perfect when they are away from their parents. There will come a time when these teens learn what parents already know. Friends are fine but can be fleeting; family is forever.