A parent and an adult child are emotionally intertwined, in intricate ways, for reasons that have nothing to do with personal preference. We're tied by history and biology to a being who was a god-like giant when we were tiny, but whose flaws we have since come to know in great and very painful detail. This never happens outside families: in no other situation are we forced into a death-bound union with someone who - given our divergent temperaments, tastes, habits and attitudes - we would never dream of selecting as a friend. We would do well to accept that as a strange, yet constant and simple, feature of the human condition, we are all emotionally tethered for life to someone who is both an irritating stranger with maddening habits and the person who wept for joy when we were born.

— Simpler Life by Alain de Botton, The School Life of School The (Page 17)