Wondering if anyone has any tips as I seem to have the opposite problem to most people with overbearing parents.
My dad is the most quiet, passive person I’ve ever met and it makes spending time with him so hard.
He’s retired and has no hobbies, or friends but any suggestions to improve that such as volunteering, social groups are shut down as ‘not for him’.
He has no opinions on anything, to the point if we go out for a meal he’ll just order what my mum has. He can’t cook or clean so relies on my mum for everything.
If he gets a round of drinks he won’t go to the bar by himself, someone needs to go with him.
He hasn’t been on holiday for years because he doesn’t have a passport and hasn’t bothered to get a new one. (My mum has been without him).
He’ll send me a text once a week to ask ‘how are you’. If I send a reply with information about my week and ask how he is, the reply from him will be ‘sounds great, good thanks, dad’. That’s it! To the point I now just reply ‘good thanks, you? To get the same message back.
I told him I was pregnant and got ‘aw, amazing, congratulations’. No further questions, he just relies on my mum to do all the talking.
He just doesn’t DO anything and it’s a struggle to have a conversation with him. Not because he’s grumpy, he’s perfectly pleasant but it’s so high level and small talky.
I feel sad because we got on so well when I was kid, but he’s become so passive it’s impossible to feel a connection.
I think if you asked him he’d say he’s happy just minding his own business, but that in itself is passive! His world just feels so small and he shuns all technology which doesn’t help - he only got a smart phone last year.
He’s only 67 so he’s not even old.
Has anyone had similar or any tips?