Some grief doesn't come with a funeral. If you grew up with a parent who was physically there but emotionally absent, you may be carrying a loss that no one ever gave you language for. This is what that grief looks like, and how healing begins.

Many of us grew up with parents who were physically present but emotionally absent—leaving us with a quiet, unspoken grief. This is known as ambiguous loss, a term coined by Dr. Pauline Boss. When emotional needs go unmet, it can shape how we see ourselves and our relationships. In this post, we explore how emotional neglect impacts us and what it means to be a "good-enough" parent. Healing starts with naming the loss and learning to reparent ourselves.