We’ve all disagreed with our parents at some point, but when Lucy Baxter was pushed too far by her father’s behavior, she took extreme action

I am a brand-new divorcée. Devastated, relieved, somewhat confused. But there’s no ex-husband involved: instead, I have cut my father out of my life, told him our relationship is over and, figuratively speaking, delivered him his decree absolute. At the age of 46 I have ‘divorced’ my Dad.  It’s one of the ultimate taboos – deliberately cutting off all contact with a parent. ‘I think most people do not realize how irrationally loyal they are to their parents,’ says clinical psychologist and writer Oliver James (author of How Not To F*** Them Up). ‘Small children love their parents unconditionally and have a strong impulse to protect them from criticism. I remember interviewing [the murderer] Fred West’s daughter Anne Marie, and even though she had been treated about as badly as a child can be by a parent, she was still sticking up for him.’ So there is an inborn instinct that, however badly a parent behaves towards us, we should forgive them. READ MORE HERE