u/Familiar_Doubt_1795

My husband drives a 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia. Don’t know about cars? I’ll make it easy - the entire car, while fuel based, runs off constant voltage from the battery. If the voltage falters even slightly, the dash panel lights up like a Christmas tree and kills power to the car (no acceleration, no hill assist, et cetera).

I’ve been telling him since December he needs a new battery. He was convinced since the battery was only 2 years old, it can’t be (umm we live in sweltering heat year round). He’d been telling anyone who would listen for months that he was going to trade it in and get something more reliable. I got to explain to him how car value works, but he still refused to change the battery.

I went out, removed the core, got the new battery, and installed it while he was at work. Guess what? It’s fine. No dash lights, warnings, sensors. But he doesn’t trust it. He drives it tentatively expecting everything to go wrong again.

Meanwhile I’ve had the same car for over 10 years because I KNOW HOW TO WORK ON CARS but nah, let’s just ignore my opinions and go into debt with another car.

My father and I had an impossible relationship growing up. For 2 decades, the tension would have needed a laser cutter. After my daughter was born, we began repairing that relationship, and I’m proud to say we’re 7 years strong now.

As we grow, he’s had questions for me and I’ve had some for him. We’ve learned that we had a common trigger that sparked everything, our goals were the same but our responses were different (which he apologies constantly for). But he always has questions about me personally, during the time we were no contact.

I’m conflicted because part of me wants to share what he missed, but part of me still guards. I’ve told him small things like accomplishments, but I dont know what he wants to know. I understand he’s trying to fill in blank spaces, but what do I tell him?

As parents, if you were missing a large period of time with your children, what would you want to know about?