24-year-old daughter refuses to answer her father’s calls during her graduation ceremony after he decided not to go because it was “too far away”, arrives home to find a series of angry texts: ‘This showed him how little I cared about it’ – FAIL Blog

The act of excluding him might not necessarily be a way of getting revenge; it can also be a way of protecting an event she deems important from an absence that speaks volumes. Sometimes, a milestone like this is a great symbolic pivot to one’s individuation, and sadly, more often than not, that can mean acting out a way of saying ‘I no longer include you or accept your mediocre way of being “present”’. Also, I can’t help but mention that the dad’s maneuver to try to make his daughter feel guilty or that she “doesn’t care” is no more than a childish attempt to manipulate the situation and make himself the victim. Someone has to be the bigger person here, and it definitely should be the literal oldest person here, the father. The girl was celebrating her success, even though she didn’t have the physical diploma (another tactic he used to try to downplay her accomplishment), and if the father really wanted to congratulate her for it, he would have taken her to dinner whether she answered her phone in the moment of the graduation or not.