A friend of mine and I agreed that, in both our cases, we love our parents and get along with them quite well. However, we acknowledge that our parents practice the principle of minimal attention, which is to say that unless we're dying or committing mortal sins, all we get are perfunctory nods, never really approval as in an acknowledgement that actually springs from an understanding and acceptance of who you are or what you are doing. And so you can imagine, we've gotten a lot of perfunctory nods.
We are assumed to be able to take care of ourselves, to make our own decisions, and not screw up our lives (maybe we're much too old and settled to do that).
The conversation ended with the conclusion that our parents are soooo lucky to have us.
