AITAH for questioning my partner being too clingy with her parents?
For context, I have only ever been in two relationships in my life, so don’t have much to base this off of. I (23M) have a partner (24M). We have been in a relationship for nearly 4 years now. She’s been a great partner and nothing but faithful. One thing about her I do sometimes find odd is her obsession with her parents / childhood dog. For reference, we live in the downtown of a fairly large U.S. city. Her parents live in a small town maybe 30-40 minutes outside. She, since the day we started dating, has always had this almost clingy like attachment to them. Has to call them nearly daily, visits them probably every other day, is always mentioning her dog to everyone. I moved away to this city for college, and while I still try to keep in touch with my parents, we may go days or even weeks at time without hearing from each other, and I just kind of assumed that was normal for adults.
It’s worth mentioning that I know she was adopted, and so I’ve tried to not hold it against her too much because I don’t truly know what that does to someone psychologically. But there’s been times where we are on vacation and mid vacation she is calling them while we’re out doing something, or I am trying to talk to her and she’s looking at her parents dog-cam to check on their dog. It also concerns me that if I ever brought up the idea of us maybe moving one day, it’s not something she would be on board with. Also when the day comes her parents pass, she will be inconsolable and unable to function as an adult (again, this feels morally awful to say because everyone is sad when their parents pass).
Am I an asshole for even worrying about this? I’d kind of assumed in the beginning we were both new in college and this would be something she’d grow out of, but 4 years later and it’s still a trend. My ex from HS was similar to me in this regard, and really just had a casual relationship with her parents, often opting to spend free time with me or friends.
TL:DR Worth reading too much into a GF clingy to parents?
Posted May 8, 2026, 3:52 PM UTC · locked