Man reveals controversial opinion on people who are close to their parents

A podcaster from Canada is going viral after sharing what he thought of people who have close relationships with their parents.

James Avramenko, who hosts the Friendless podcast, posted a video on TikTok (@friendlesspod) that said: “I know this is probably the trauma speaking, but one of my biggest red flags is if you’re really close with your parents. I don’t know…it baffles me, and it makes me feel like there’s something very wrong with one of us.”

Avramenko, who lives in Vancouver, told Newsweek about his own relationship with his parents, explaining how complex it is.

“I kind [of] flipped through my life of being close to my mom and not my dad, and then more recently have become much closer to my dad—or as close as you can be while living on the other side of the country,” he said.

Referring to one of his “biggest red flags,” Avramenko said that was more of a joke and believes the concept of red flags is devoid of nuance.

“At the time, I was thinking about some friends whose parents are pretty overly involved in their lives, and that caused a lot of stress on them both. There’s enough stress on everyone. I don’t think we need to keep justifying ourselves to our parents just because they decided to birth us—a choice we had no say in the matter of,” he told Newsweek.

As the host of Friendless—a podcast that explores the complexities of friendships—Avramenko acknowledged that his humor is shaped by his personal experiences. The mentioning of “trauma” in the video was the 37-year-old being ironic.

“But it’s scratching at the idea that I’m aware that my judgments of others are more likely projections of unprocessed grief from my own past,” he added.

Since it was posted this past November, the clip has been viewed 307,000 times and received hundreds of comments.

“Even as someone who isn’t that close with my parents this is an odd take,” one user wrote. Another even urged the podcast host to delete the video because commenters were not “interpreting this well.”

Others, on the other hand, understood the irony and made their own jokes about the situation.

“My dream guy is an orphan,” a third wrote.

“Estrangement over enmeshment any day of the week,” said another.

Avramenko acknowledged the mixed response. “The people who got the joke loved it; the people who didn’t all called me whatever name/slur they thought would cut me best. But the joke’s on them, my block and delete game is well practiced,” he said.

“I’ve got no time to engage with anonymous negative users,” Avramenko added.

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