It’s painful when estranged adult children don’t respond to invitations at the holidays. At this time of year, even a video chat would be meaningful in lieu of a family gathering.

If you’ve issued an invitation and not heard back, you have plenty of company. It’s frustrating and hurtful. Why do they do it?

In this episode of the podcast, Tina suggests three reasons why an otherwise polite adult child might fail to respond to invitations during estrangement.

If you haven’t already sent one out, Tina recommends not issuing invitations to estranged adult child. However, she does give two exceptions to this general rule.