I've never met my father, and have been told for years that this is because I'm not of a high enough rank to earn the privilege. There are rumors that he's gone all absentee on us, that he doesn't actually care about us and has some other family he likes better (wouldn't be the first time), or that he's dead. It's even possible that my father doesn't exist and never did.

Despite all this I'm still expected to follow -- and even anticipate -- his every whim with no better explanation than that he "works in mysterious ways". And then I get yelled at for turning around and giving other people that explanation.

What's up with that?

ETA Oh, yes, I don't even actually have a mother. My father didn't really decide to try the whole mother thing with his kids until a good two thousand years or so after I came around. Now there are shrines erected to her and prayers in her honor. Talk about your trophy wife.