According to experts, emotionally absent mothers come with some variations, but the common theme is that they are insensitive to the emotional experience and wellbeing of their children.

It is especially confusing in those cases where they appear, on the outside, to be involved parents, perhaps invested in the kids’ education, providing financial resources, and the like, and yet the children or adult children, when they respond honestly, report they do not feel loved or even known in any real way.   

Parenting expert Ayanda Tetyana talks about the dynamics of having an absent mother.