In an endearing story out of Boston, MA, 27-year-old Raina Hagstrom has admitted to having a parasocial relationship with her own father.
Whatever works, girl!
While podcasts are often the culprit of people developing unhealthy, one-sided relationships with people they don’t know, offering an intimate yet detached view of their lives and personalities, in this case, Raina’s mom has unwittingly played that role.
“I would have no idea what my dad was up to if it wasn’t for my mom,” Raina said. “My dad doesn’t actually have any form of social media, unless you count a Yahoo email account, which you shouldn’t.”
Raina claims that she’s not even asking for these updates, but once inundated with the information, it’s hard to remain neutral about the person in question.
“I guess he does birdwatching now? I don’t know, I just heard him yell something to my mom about the blue jays being back when I was on the phone with her. I honestly don’t know if that was something he was excited about, or if he has a blood feud going on with the blue jays that he’s roping my mother into.”
For some people, parasocial relationships provide relief from the strained complementary relationships of their real lives. For Raina, this actually isn’t the case.
“It’s weird to have the very real relationship I have with my mother clash with the fabricated one I have with my father. Sometimes I’ll catch a glimpse of him walking through the background when I’m FaceTiming my mom and I’ll develop a false sense of closeness to him. In reality, he’s probably off to spy on the blue jays, unaware that my mom is even on FaceTime, or that I’m in the midst of moving to a different state.”
Raina stated that this proximity to her mother has also made it seem like Raina and her father are close by association, since they do technically have a mutual.
“Sometimes I start to feel like we have a little friendship going, and then I have to remind myself that, no, he’s my father and we haven’t actually spoken or seen each other since last Christmas.”
At press time, Raina admitted that while this parasocial relationship with her father is undeniably one-sided and devoid of any genuine connection, she can’t help but find a little comfort in knowing that her dad has a vast sea of hobbies, even if they don’t include texting, calling, or emailing her.
Sweet!
