It doesn’t get much more complex or emotional than tensions and estrangement between parents and their children. Sometimes it’s fueled by confused emotions and hormones, and sometimes it’s caused by grievous wrongdoings.
Tamra Judge is famously feuding with The Real Housewives of Orange County costar Vicki Gunvalson, but she also has a much more important and more personal feud — with her estranged daughter, Sidney. She even spoke about it, emotionally, on the Season 12 premiere of RHOC.
Now Tamra’s saying that things with her daughter are improving … but is she just putting on a brave face?
Tamra Judge split from her ex, Simon.
As so often happens in divorce, especially with older children, the family became fractured.
Young kids might be ferried back and forth between the two, but that wasn’t the case.
Tamra’s 17-year-old son, Spencer, lives with her and calls her new husband, David, “dad.”
Her 11-year-old daughter, Sophia, gets shuttled back and forth between Tamra and Simon.
Sidney, however, has refused to live with Tamra, living instead with her father.
Tamra has lamented not being able to be there for her oldest daughter’s milestones.
But, at least on the surface, they might be inching their way towards reconciliation.
There was something of a family reunion for Sidney’s high school graduation, complete with pictures.
She captioned the photo of photos:
“So many things to be proud of this month. Our family has come a long way and I couldn’t be happier.”
That sounds promising, right?
“Simon and I are so proud of these amazing, smart, funny, beautiful, & crazy kids.”
It’s good that she and her ex can speak as one on a subject as important as their children.
And then Tamra gets a little more personal, bringing it back to her daughter — whom they were all honoring.
“Congrats Sidney! Your smile lightens up the room and your future is so bright.”
But, clearly, there’s still quite a bit of tension.
But Tamra Judge says that her relationship with Sidney is improving, little by little.
“We’re making progress. Every day’s a step forward and we’re just really trying to bring the family back together.”
We don’t know how mutual that is.
Sometimes parents can mistake “working out our issues” with “getting their children to see things their way.” It never ends well.
Publicly, at least, Tamra has nothing but praise for Sidney.
“She’s amazing. She’s doing great. She graduated from high school, going off to college and I’m just really proud of her.”
And she should be.
“It’s still very difficult and we’ve had a long journey and we’re making progress which is good.”
It’s hard to tell if she’s just being optimistic and putting a good face on it, or if her statements reflect reality and her daughter’s actual feelings.
Like, Tamra refers to a facelift as a comeback — she can put a shine on anything.
What we’d really want to do is hear from Sidney, in Sidney’s own words, how things are.
And also why things are the way that they are.
We don’t know if Sidney wants to repair things with her mom or if she privately listens to that Tamra Judge diss track.
Sidney’s entering the adult world and old enough to speak for herself.
Because as long as we’re just hearing from Tamra, we’ll never have the complete story.