Mmm. There is definitely a disconnect there, but I've always seen it as going both ways - Hikaru has very little respect for his mother (a little more for his grandfather, but not much) and rarely tells her anything (even/specially Very Important things, like the pro exam). His mother assumes that he's doing nothing special and does not closely monitor his activities (or show much interest in his life, really. Unless there are multiple scenes off page where she asks him how his day was and he brushes her off - we see so little of his home life, it's hard to know if she's genuinely disinterested or just giving him space).

It leaves me with a million questions:

* What does his dad do? What's he like?

* What does his mom do all day?

* Is this behavior new or was it in place before Hikaru started playing go?

* What came first, Hikaru's disinterest in his home life or his parents' hands-off approach to parenting?

We don't know much about Hikaru before he meets Sai - he's out of pocket money (allowance was cut off? I need to go back and check), he doesn't have many friends (he doesn't like Akari much, but she's the only one he spends any time with), he doesn't have any real drive or desires.

My first thought is that his Dad's a real asshole (but we don't get any concern from his grandfather?). My second is that Hotta wasn't interested in talking about his family life so we don't see much of it (but that kind of shoddy storytelling isn't like her). My third is that he's like someone I know, eternally punishing his mother for a past transgression (real or imagined) and resentful of his absent father.

I wish we had more to work with.