Family
Until his marriage, Howard was noted for still living with his overbearing mother, who is selectively oblivious to his accomplishments as an adult and usually treats him like he is still a child, filling the cliché of a Jewish mother. Howard is an only child. Howard's wife is Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz.
Mrs. Wolowitz (voiced by Carol Ann Susi) is not shown on-screen until the season 6 episode "The Spoiler Alert Segmentation", but her voice is heard when he is at their house or when he talks to her on the phone. She only communicates with Howard by yelling to him in an obnoxious manner, which results in awkward long-distance conversations, with Howard frustratedly yelling back at her. Her nosy nature and her barrage of questions make Howard's life tense at home, which prompts him to call her a "crazy old lady". It is revealed in "The Cohabitation Formulation", however, when Howard briefly moves in with Bernadette, that he likes being "mothered" to some extent. In "The Apology Insufficiency", Sheldon observes that Howard seems to have "an unresolved Oedipus complex".
In "The Precious Fragmentation", Howard reveals that his father left his family when Howard was 11. His mother bought him an ALF doll to help Howard try to get over it. When Howard finds a similar doll at a garage sale, he starts talking to it as if he were 11 again, asking him to find his dad and bring him home. This causes Penny (who usually avoids Howard and is disgusted by him) to be sympathetic. The trauma of his father's desertion and the lack of a father figure throughout adolescence may be the root of much of Howard's behavior. So far Howard is the only character out of the main cast who has never had a family relative appear on-screen but his family seems to be rather extensive and distributed all over the USA, as seen from the time when he briefly dated Dr. Stephanie Barnett. In "The Shiny Trinket Manuever", it is mentioned that the birthday party where he did his magic show was his cousin's party but it is unknown who his cousin was in the group of children that were present. In "The Closet Reconfiguration" Howard gets a letter from his father which is the first contact that he gets from his father in the show.
Read more about this topic: Howard Wolowitz
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