I think for most of us, our parents can be two people. For me at least, I know they are. They are our parents, and we know them as mom and dad (or just dad or just mom or some variation of this, of course), but they are also Lucy the woman, or Henry the man.
I realized very recently that I know both sides of my dad, because the sort of guy he is is the sort of dad he is, but that's not so with my mom. I know her as my parent, and not as a person.

Anyway, what I am mulling over is this: If our parents are pretty good to us, and give us no reason to hate or despise them, we pretty much know and love them as our parents. But... do we ever get to know them as people, and will we like the people they are? I'm sure many of us will like both sides of our parents... but what if that's not the case? Thoughts?

Perhaps it's not necessarily a case of two people - it could be a case of four, or more. Varying from person to person.
But I think, more along the lines of your post, that most people would be upset with themselves if they realised that they didn't like their parents as people.

I don't think there would be any reason to like one's parents, as people, any more than one would with a stranger, but maybe, because one probably would have known their parents for a very long time, one would have become used to them and perhaps taken their personality as a model for what one wants to see in a friend, unconsciously.

I get on really well with my mum and i know i can always talk to her. Not so much with my dad though. I don't know my parents fully i wouldn't say. but i know my mum much better.


My parents are going through a bad patch and are 'living apart in the same house' Although my dad doesn't know i know this. so therefore i think my mum feels she can talk to me as she doesn't really have anyone else.

If you start to think of your parents as people you will more often than not draw upon their faults rather than their positive aspects. Thankfully, I know my parents well enough to get along with them most of the time - and although I know them particularly well as people I don't think of them as either as a parent or as a person seperately, because they're the same.

Whether you like your parents when you find out who they are. Hmm, a toughie. I suppose it depends on how you see people I suppose. All people are multi-faceted enough not to make this a black and white subject, because there are always some aspects of your parents that you like and others you hate.

I think when one share genes and relationship that started since you were born, one might be willing to accept and tolerate things about one's parent that they would not of other people.

In reference to the original ideas. I don't think we really compartmentalize our parents in our relationships with them, but we do, at least I did, make a division between "parent" and "person" for the purposes of learning about them on a personal level. The parent is someone who is committed to us and our well-being, and of course parents do this in varying degrees and in a diverse set of ways. But when we become less reliant on them for our well being, the personal level arises in value. We don't ask how well does this person take care of me? but rather, Who are they? When we do this, we have started out with a compartmentalization. But soon after this we learn that the division is in our minds, and that the kind of person our parents are is reflected fully in the ways they cared for us when we were reliant on them

I know I have just summed up a very intense transition that takes place in in several stages, some which take long periods of time, and others which come in revealing spurts. The point is that this is a general overview...at least to me...