Giant's Bread by Agatha Christie

If Vernon had been capable of summing up the events of the next few years, he could best have done it in one word -- scenes! Everlasting and ever-recurring scenes.

And he began to notice a curious phenomenon. After each scene his mother looked larger and his father looked smaller. Emotional storms of reproach and invective exhilarated Myra mentally and physically. She emerged from them refreshed, soothed -- full of good will towards all the world.