These Toxic Families Should Be Disowned

October 21, 2021 | Scott Mazza

These Toxic Families Should Be Disowned


Sure, you can get used to a sulky sibling or a guilt-tripping parentbut some family members are so horrible that really, the best they deserve is to get disowned. Strap in and hold on tight, because these stories about awful family members are so toxic, they're practically radioactive.


1. Ripped To Shreds

My mother has anger issues. She and my dad divorced when I was young, and I split time between houses. Mom just hated Dad, and the woman can carry a grudge. She hated the fact that I also loved him and enjoyed spending time with him. She would constantly try to get me to say that I loved her more, didn’t love him, etc.

That’s toxic enough, but there’s one event that really stands out: I was seven or eight and had said something to set her off, probably about weekend plans Dad and I had. She got upset, yelled at me, got more upset when I didn’t repent, and so on. Then, looking straight at me, she grabbed a cardboard egg carton from the recycling pile and methodically ripped it apart.

As she stood there, ripping the egg carton to shreds, she furiously said, “I wish I was allowed to do this to you.”

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2. Wicked Sister

My parents disowned my oldest sister. Growing up, she always struggled more than us (she became a teen mom, partied a lot, etc.), but my parents helped her a lot. They do okay for themselves, but they had a no-co-signing rule for all six of my siblings and me. Still, they co-signed for her house so she could get a head start—a decision they'd soon regret.

She didn’t pay the mortgage for almost three years and my mom got served in front of all the other nurses at her work. My parents worked tirelessly to try to work out deals to help my sister keep the house, but because my sister never showed up for court dates, nothing worked. During this time, she paid $12K for IVF and got pregnant with her fifth kid.

When my mom demanded some of the money back, she falsely accused my dad and my brother of beating her sons when my parents took them to Disney World. She even threatened to file a report if he asked for money again. All of this was horrible, but things really came to a head during Christmas when she committed the unforgivable.

She punched my brother in the face during the meal for “humiliating” her oldest son by asking him if he wanted to work at his company for good pay. Her oldest son was in and out of prison, and my brother was just trying to help him after his release. Out of anger, she called 9-1-1 and told them my brother had dangerous goods in his truck.

They came on Christmas night and conducted a search, but nothing was found in his vehicle. Needless to say, she is not welcome anywhere near any of us. My mom still cries about it, but even she refuses to talk to her again.

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3. A Series Of Uncomfortable Events

My ex-boyfriend wanted me to meet his parents, and he told me they wanted to meet me too. We decided to drive up to their place in the Bay area, since we lived in Orange County at the time, for Thanksgiving. I'm white, and he and his parents are Chinese. I normally wouldn't mention this, but apparently my whiteness made them not approve of me, and therefore not actually want to meet me.

I didn't know they didn't want to meet me, otherwise I wouldn't have driven six hours and showed up at their house. It went more badly than I could have ever predicted. When we knocked on their door, his mother answered, looked at me and said, in Cantonese, "I told you not to bring the white girl here." More was said in Cantonese, but I understood none of it.

To save money, his parents did not have the boiler on, nor did they have heat in the house. Not having a boiler meant not having hot water, and therefore not having showers. To remedy this, they had a membership at 24 Hour Fitness, where they went every night to have a shower. They insisted that we go to 24 Hour Fitness for a shower literally 15 minutes after showing up at their house.

24 Hour Fitness has communal showering. I'm absolutely terrified of communal showering. I had to get naked with my boyfriend's mother 15 minutes after meeting her. At that point, she had never spoken a word to me in English. The first actual communication she showed me was to thrust a hairdryer in my hands. The next few days were excruciatingly uncomfortable.

Next to nothing was said in English at all, and I felt like everybody hated me. I spent several days just being as quiet, submissive, and polite as possible. I was sent to his mother's garden to pull weeds in the sun for a few hours, and after that she apparently began liking me. Later in the week, she decided I needed a checkup at the doctor. For what reason, I don't know.

It turns out that she scheduled me for a vaginal exam, conducted by a man. A man who I don't know. A man who spoke in really broken English. I explained to her that I was not comfortable with any of this. It was horrible and embarrassing.

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4. Juice Chuggers

One time my dad took me over to my uncle's house—we had no idea why we were going over there. My dad made my twin and I chug orange juice as a contest. We thought it was funny. It turns out, we were chugging it so my uncle could pour booze in the jug, and get wasted before my dad drove him to rehab. So.....that was fun.

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5. Fulfilling A Prophecy

My parents used to tell me, in so many words, that being myself wasn't good enough and that people wouldn't like me unless I completely changed who I was. They genuinely believed that there was something inherently unlikeable about me and that I had to pretend to be someone else to get anywhere in life. That really messed me up for life. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I went from a quirky kid with lots of ambitions to an adult with negative self-esteem and no personality. I'll never recover from it. They did thousands of tiny things to cut me down over the years, things I don't think they even realized they were doing, but nevertheless made me believe more and more strongly that I was just not good.

They told me I wasn't "normal" and that they wouldn't acknowledge my unique needs because I needed to learn how to deal with normal people, and told me that I had a hard time making friends because I didn't have blonde hair. They said people must be "intimidated" by me and that's why they didn't like me and told me I was bragging every time I was proud of anything I did.

They even tried telling me as a teenager I was being selfish and tried to forbid me from even saying the word "I." I still remember hundreds of the things they did and said to me that just made me think, "Wow, I'm doing everything wrong." I will acknowledge that I hold a lot of the responsibility for letting it affect me so much and I haven't properly dealt with its repercussions.

I should have dealt with my issues in a constructive way instead of a destructive way, which made me continually spiral until I lost every shred of dignity. I have believed for a long time that I'm just a "bad person" and there's nothing I can do about it, and even though a part of me knows that I can control my destiny and my actions, a much larger part of myself believes so strongly that I'm a bad person that it's overtaken my entire narrative.

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6. What A Witch!

My mother and her sister were both adopted into a great family. A few years ago, my grandfather fell ill and we were told to prepare to say goodbye, so the family gathered. My grandmother was having a hard time with her memory since she had a brain hemorrhage, but she welcomed my aunt into her home. Whilst my grandfather was in his final week, Wendy, my aunt, took my grandmother's ATM card.

When my uncles found the bill, they became absolutely livid. My aunt had spent thousands of dollars on herself and even attempted to sell my grandmother's car. The family tried to confront her about it, but she basically disappeared into the wind. At that point, the whole family had had enough. When my grandfather finally passed, we brought my grandmother to an attorney and had her write Wendy out of her will.

She didn't press any formal charges because the whole process would have been lengthy and more painful for her. She didn't need the extra stress. I'm pretty sure one of my uncles also threatened Wendy to make sure she stayed away from my grandmother, too.

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7. An Eye For An Eye

When I was 12, my brother, who is six years younger than me, and I were playing knights in the garden and throwing spears at a blanket with a cross on it. This was a recipe for disaster...At one moment, I threw my spear, not knowing he stood behind the blanket. The spear went straight into his eye socket. He survived—but the rest of the day was a blur.

I remember blood everywhere, my parents yelling at me, then standing at the corner, waiting for the ambulance to come while crying for what seemed a million years. Everyone was ignoring me. Then, we went to the hospital, and it only got worse. The guilt was the worst. So much guilt. I was only 12, and the nurses were giving me the evil eye. However, the hardest part was still to come.

My brother went blind in one eye, but otherwise, was perfectly fine. After about a year he had to go to a doc for a prosthetic eye. My mum said that I had to come with them. I remember VERY vividly sitting in the waiting room, hearing him cry, "It hurts it hurts.” It seemed like an eternity—but when my mother emerged, she looked at me dead-eyed and said, "Now you know what you've done."

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8. Daddy Issues

I disowned my father. I don't believe it was nearly as difficult a decision as disowning a child, but it was tough. I grew up in an upper-middle-class, perfect nuclear family. My parents were high school sweethearts. My dad was an operator at an oil refinery, while my mom was an accountant turned stay-at-home mom.  I am a middle child—I have an older brother and a younger brother.

When my older brother was about 10, my dad's drinking got out of hand and he became extremely physical. My mom eventually divorced him after 23 years of marriage because she was afraid for our lives. After that, my dad went off the deep, deep end. He started doing substances, stealing...He was even involved in a few hit-and-runs.

My older brother, who had received the brunt of the physical misconduct, was manipulated into a relationship with him for a few years. To a lesser extent, so was I. He seemed to take an interest in us for the first time since we were little, but in hindsight, it was just more manipulation and gaslighting. We eventually got wind of just what kind of sketchy stuff he was involved in.

My little brother, who both had aspirations to get into law enforcement, cut him out of our lives completely. My older brother, on the other hand, took a while longer–he was a kid who always just wanted his dad to love him and so he was wearing blinders. He did eventually see the light, and he cut my dad out as well. Then, a few years later, my dad was living with his mom.

My grandma had been manipulated by him for years, and they had a symbiotic, co-dependent relationship...She was a prescription addict and he was an "everything" addict. My grandma had a reverse mortgage on her home. She was diagnosed with lung cancer and given six months to live, so she moved into a nursing home where she could be taken care of.

That's when my dad really messed up. He kept squatting at her house, despite the bank coming to rightfully claim the home. The local authorities got involved and he was taken in. To make matters worse,  grandma slipped and fell around the same time all of that was happening. She ended up developing a brain bleed and passed a few days later.

My dad had a seizure his first night behind bars and was brought to the hospital, where it was determined he had a burst brain aneurysm. The doctors theorized that the aneurysm was the result of his substance use, and when he was scuffling with the officers when he was being handcuffed, his increased blood pressure caused it to burst.

He's now in a nursing home and functioning at about a six-year-old's level. He has some inkling that he's messed up royally and that it's all his fault, but he really doesn't understand the specifics. He can kind of communicate and hold conversations, but they're bizarre and wander all over the place. A lot of very strange words make their way into his speech.

I visit him a few times per year. I only do it because the person he became with the addiction is long gone. I believe that karma caught up to him and that he's earned his punishment. I truly would not shed a tear if he passed tomorrow—he's been gone to me for a decade.

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9. Breaking Everything

If the tiniest thing broke at home—I remember once I broke a clothespin—it was the end of all things. Dad would fly off the handle about it. Or worse, if something broke around him, or he broke it, it was still my fault. I remember, once, my brother spilled an entire carton of OJ and it was my fault for "putting it back in the fridge wrong."

If a door handle broke, it was because I touched it three turns ago and I was "too rough" with it. And so on. Even after I moved out, things were my fault at the house. They never gave me a dime after my 18th birthday, but if they didn't have enough money to pay bills, it was because they had me. I remember, one time, their house flooded, and this was my fault because two weeks prior, I was at their house, and I washed my hands and "must've" damaged the faucet.

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10. Save The Children

My parents disowned my oldest sister. She had a horrible relationship with my father—it was so bad that she had her first baby when she was 16 years old, just to spite him. My father refused to give her money because she'd just keep getting pregnant (with a good-for-nothing boyfriend, no less). She constantly puts herself and the deadbeat before her kids.

My father would send money to girls for Christmas and their birthdays, but he'd never hear back from them, so he finally gave up. She's 30, has six daughters, and lives in a mobile home in North Carolina. We hadn't seen or heard from her until June of this year. My oldest niece contacted me asking if she could come to Florida (where I live) for the summer to get her and her sisters out of the trailer.

After I got my sister's permission, I set up plane tickets and organized the rooms they'd be staying in. When they arrived, I was appalled at the sight of them—they were completely disheveled, clothes visibly dirty, and covered in swarms of lice that my white towels stained gray from removing them. My niece informed me that they had been without water and electricity for six months.

After that, as a family, we decided that the girls weren't going back to North Carolina. We told my sister to come to my parents' house in Florida to get back on her feet. She refused because we didn't invite the deadbeat to come with her. Then, ironically, she found out that he had been cheating on her. She confronted him, but it ended with her getting kicked out of the trailer.

The deadbeat said, "I would rather be homeless than stay with you." My sister now works for the dollar store and doesn't pull her weight with kids. At least the girls are safe now...

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11. Putting On Makeup

My mother is very traditional, very much so the type of Southern woman who wakes up even on a Saturday to put on a full face of makeup and curl her hair. Since the time I hit puberty, so let’s say 12 or 13, I had her telling me that I needed to put makeup on every day. “You just look better with makeup on,” and “You’re too plain to go without makeup,” or my personal favorite of “Some girls are beautiful without makeup, you’re just not one of those girls.”

As a young and impressionable teen, it really wrecked my confidence to go and be seen by my family or, God forbid, in public without makeup on. To this day she still says that to me, but I’m happy to say that now, as a 21-year-old, I can go out in public and feel confident completely bare-faced. A mother should never tell their child that they aren’t beautiful without makeup on.

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12. Crooked Cousin

My aunt started showing signs of dementia at a relatively young age, so we moved her into an assisted living home. Our cousin (who bounces around jobs) was hired to visit her about once a week; to take her out to the mall or walk with her in the park, whatever. She was paid handsomely. One day, we got a shocking alert on our phones that sent chills up our spines.

Our aunt had a check bounce from her account that should have had $5K in it. Clearly, our cousin had drained the account, proven beyond a doubt with receipts. Turns out, she would take our aunt to a bank machine every Friday, withdraw $200, then charge us for hours that she didn't actually spend with our aunt. The worst part? For some bizarre reason, her family took her side...

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13. Bats For Sure

Last night at dusk, I saw a father walking around a nearby pond and nature reserve by my house with his son and his daughter while I was walking my dog. There are bats there, which some people don’t realize because we’re in the UK and God forbid we have anything more exotic than a fox. Anyway, the kid, maybe nine years old, said, "Wow dad I just saw a bat!!"

And the dad just laughed and said “Heh…I don’t think you did...” My heart hurt for the little boy until they walked under a streetlight and the dad exclaimed, “OMG there’s loads of them!!!!!!!” And the little girl, maybe four years old, started screaming. Well done kid, you were right from the start!

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14. Political Divide

My mother is a QAnon conspiracy nut job and I called her out on her delusions. I told her I thought her ideology was dangerous and that she needed help. We even went to family therapy together. All this time, my dad seemed to be on my side, but after sitting in on a few of the sessions, he sent me a heartbreaking text.

He basically said that it wasn’t going anywhere and that they didn’t want to speak with me again. Since then, my parents have been bad-mouthing me to the rest of my very conservative family. I don’t know what to do or where to go. I understand how terrible my parents are, but my kids don’t and they are going to miss their grandparents. I’m not looking forward to telling them.

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15. Be The Know-It-All

My parents had extremely high expectations of me—expectations I couldn't possibly live up to. They wanted me to be a natural-born genius, and expected me to know the most random trivia, like which teams had won all the world cups, the capital cities of each country, etc. At the same time, they told me to "shut up" anytime I tried to ask a question.

The whole time I was in school, I tried my hardest to be the smartest person in the room, and even now, I don't believe it when friends tell me I'm smart.

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16. All For Love

When my great-grandmother is part Black like me, with tan skin and loose brown curls. She was born in Florida, but when things started getting bad for Black people in Florida, her family relocated to Texas. For those who don't know, Creole people tend to play heavily into colorism. Although they are definitely mixed race, they prioritize light-skinned people.

The looser your curl, the lighter your skin, the more white you look, the better. Her parents had high expectations for her to marry a wealthy, light-skinned man who would take care of her. Instead, she met my great grandfather—a poor, dark-skinned man jumping from job to job working for farmers and trying to make a living. The two of them fell in love and they were just teenagers.

But her parents were not having it. They threatened to disown her if she continued seeing him, and like a rebellious teenager, she refused. They wanted her to do better. She wanted to be in love. They might have broken up eventually, but fate had other plans for them—she ended up getting pregnant, and they stayed together for the child.

Her parents basically said "you've ruined your life" and disowned her right there. In fact, the whole family disowned her. No one would speak to her—aunts, uncles, cousins; not a single person stood up for her. So she had no choice...The two of them moved to California so he could get a job picking oranges. Then, he built a house, and they had their first daughter. She was 16. She never saw her family again.

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17. Waiting By The Window

When I was younger, I would call my Dad and he would tell me “I’m coming over to get you.” Hearing that, I would sit by the window and just wait for him, but he would never come. My mom used to say that it was heartbreaking to see. I’ve seen him maybe 12 times in my entire life, I’m 40 now and it still hurts when I think about it.

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18. Fighting Demons

My older brother has been a petty crook for as long as I could remember; into hard substances since his pre-teens and pretty much a full-blown sociopath. He treated every girl in his life like meat. I remember him as a teenager calling his girlfriend derogatory names because she didn’t want to get intimate with him, but that was tame compared to everything else he did.

When he knocked another girl up years later, he had a daughter, and one of the first things out of his mouth in the hospital after her birth was: “She’s gonna grow up to be a failure like her mom.” Let’s just say that child is better off not having him as a father figure (she’s been adopted since then and is living a happy childhood, last time I checked).

He also treated my parents like trash. He would be in and out of prison, and they would take him in whenever he was out. Then he’d find a job, lose it, and somehow land himself behind bars again. He would get in physical fights with my mom, dad, and me, and he’d kick our dogs, cats, etc. We’d have to get new drywall to replace the holes he punched through those walls. Living with him was a nightmare.

But there was one incident involving him that was really the last straw for us. Not only did he walk out on his kid and her mother, but he also started a gang fight at our house over a shady deal gone wrong. Things got really violent and I’m pretty sure dangerous items were involved. He left the house, and on that very same night, he came back because he needed a place to stay.

When my dad said no, he started fighting my dad. I stepped in at that point and almost beat the heck out of him. It ended with my dad having to hold me down to stop me from ending him, and my brother walking away down the street. I haven’t seen him since. That was six years ago. At this point, he’s either in prison or worse. I may have every reason in the world to hate him for everything he’s done, but I don’t.

He’s a tortured soul who has let his demons get the absolute best of him, plain and simple. I just hope that he finds some kind of peace, even if it takes losing his life for him to do so.

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19. Breaking Everything

If the tiniest thing broke at home—I remember once I broke a clothespin—it was the end of all things. Dad would fly off the handle about it. Or worse, if something broke around him, or he broke it, it was still my fault. I remember, once, my brother spilled an entire carton of OJ and it was my fault for "putting it back in the fridge wrong."

If a door handle broke, it was because I touched it three turns ago and I was "too rough" with it. And so on. Even after I moved out, things were my fault at the house. They never gave me a dime after my 18th birthday, but if they didn't have enough money to pay bills, it was because they had me. I remember, one time, their house flooded, and this was my fault because two weeks prior, I was at their house, and I washed my hands and "must've" damaged the faucet.

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20. Numb To It All

We adopted a three-year-old from foster care. He was the cutest, sweetest kid. He had a few issues, but we figured it was probably because of his history. The issues escalated quickly. When he was seven, he hit our dog with a golf club. We had to keep him away from our dog and our cat after that. But then the cat disappeared—we assumed she just got out and ran away.

Years later, we found out he had brutally ended its life and then just threw it in the woods. But that wasn't even the worst part—the last straw was when he burned our home down. We sent him to a residential treatment center where he stayed for two years. During that time, he attacked a roommate and became extremely violent.

The insurance company told us that they wouldn’t cover him anymore and we’d either have to pay out of pocket ($40K a month) or bring him home. We have younger children and the second option just wouldn’t be safe. We ended up telling the state that we wouldn’t bring him home, so now we have a verified report against us (even though the therapists agreed with our decision).

I don’t love him. I wish the best for him, but I don’t feel anything toward him.

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21. Helicopter Mom

My mom was very, very paranoid about what I did on the computer. Now, I was a very shy, quiet girl and never really did all that much to get in serious trouble. I was never interested in weird stuff, didn't look up anything like that online, and never bothered to clear the search history because of it. Yet she was a raging paranoid about anything I was doing on there.

I used the computer to message my friends, buy iTunes, and play Roller Coaster Tycoon. That's it. I was very open about this fact. But she would go through my history, stand behind me and blatantly eavesdrop on my messages about innocent topics like school or video games, constantly ask what I was doing, and she would freak the heck out if I ever shut the door due to noise bothering me.

She had an unfounded paranoia that I was in there looking at restricted websites, despite the fact that I never, not once, even attempted it. She also was insane about anything remotely sexual and was super dedicated to catching me doing something so she could yell at me about it. Yes, I did it, but never when anyone was home. I wasn't stupid. Still, her helicopter parenting didn't end there.

If I was ever in the shower too long, she'd shriek at me. Not only that, but she would burst into my room whenever I had the door shut like she wanted to catch me. One time, she started screaming at me over how "disgusting" and "inappropriate" I was because she was under the impression that she'd caught me. She did not. I was laying on my bed playing with my dog. I'm still confused about this incident to this day.

This not only made me super paranoid about deleting my texts and search history to the point where I still do it despite living alone and not sharing devices with anyone, but it also gave me a really weird complex about my body that was extremely unhealthy. I wasn't able to be comfortable enough to have intercourse until I was almost 21, and already two years into a four-year relationship.

I thought it was dirty and wrong and that I deserved to be punished for it. Catholicism didn't help with that one. So yeah. Don't be a freak about your teenagers' urges. No one wants to think about it, but learn to cope with the idea.

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22. Love Is Blind

My father had this stupid witch for a wife. She was just terrible. She cheated on my father and left him after three years of marriage. He did everything for her and she just made him miserable. After she left, my father became really, really depressed, so I cared for him. I could only hope that he would get over the whole situation. We even fought the divorce together.

Eventually, he did get better and I was really happy for him. Then, one day, everything changed for the worse—she came back to him when she had no money left. He told me about it and I was so angry that he didn’t learn his lesson. I told him that I didn’t want to see her ever again and that I wouldn’t do anything for him as long as she was there.

When my father wanted to meet me for lunch one afternoon, I knew something was up. When I arrived, I saw her sitting there with him. I went to the table and basically said that she had to leave or I would. He got mad at me for that, so I left. I told him to screw off and never spoke to him again. I love my dad, but I can't keep watching him make the same mistake with that horrible woman.

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23. A Two For One

Every so often, my mom likes to remind me that my dad never wanted kids. He told her that, if she wanted to start a family, she had to stay home and raise the babies. So, not only did my dad not actually want me, but I also ruined the career my mom loved. What angers me, even more, is she didn’t start telling me this until after my dad developed early-onset dementia, so he couldn’t even back up or refute the claims.

It was just her bitter word. Heck, I’m in my 30s now and am still trying to be civil with my mom since she and my brother are the only family members I have left, but these kinds of passive-aggressive comments are why I moved hundreds of miles away as soon as I could.

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24. Secret's Out

My mom got taken out of my grandparent’s will, and she only got to know so because of her sister. Her side of the family has always been very conservative and rather “communal,” so ‘til the end do us apart’ is serious business with them. She ran away for over a week without giving any notice, leaving me and my sister alone, only to come back with some stranger.

We couldn’t tell anyone they were living with us, as it was obvious things were about to get hairy. She eventually divorced him and remarried in the span of about six months, all while trying to keep everyone in the family out of the loop. But somehow, her secret got out, and when my family got word of what happened, chaos ensued.

When she wasn’t invited to the Christmas family reunion, she shamelessly used me and my sister as bargaining chips. They took away everything that was still in their name from her. She moved away, and only recently has she been trying to connect back.

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25. No One Loves You

My fiancée’s dad cheated on her mum and left her with a ridiculously expensive house to afford and would constantly withhold child maintenance. My fiancée and her sister were constantly looked after by her grandparents while their mum worked three jobs. The last thing her dad said to her was, “No one loves you,” and when she said I’m pretty sure my grandparents do, his response was so messed up—I'll never forget it.

He said, “No they don’t, they just pretend to because they feel sorry for you.” But her father isn't the only toxic one in the family. Her stepmom is a nasty piece of work as well. She continuously makes horrible comments like, “You look fat in that dress,” and, “When is your mum going to get a proper job so that you can afford proper clothes." Trash, the pair of them.

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26. The Blame Game

When I revealed this family secret,  my mother's side disowned me (which was probably for the better). When I was a kid, my uncle took advantage of me repeatedly. It happened one summer when I was with my grandparents. It really messed me up, and it took years of therapy for me to finally accept that I'm gay. I'm still working on trusting men in general because the whole experience was so traumatic for me.

Anyway, when I was about 14, I told my mother about it because I just needed to get the secret out. I was about to be in a situation where I'd have to be alone with him again, so I was scared. Her response chilled me to the bone. She first apologized to me, saying she was sorry for sending me away that summer...but then she went to say that it was a shame the "family curse" got a hold of me as well.

That's when I realized there was a cycle of physical wrongdoing in our family. I'd always hated her for letting this happen, but she had no way of stopping it or even knowing it'd happen to her son. It had always been something that happened to the girls but never to the boys. We went to the authorities, and because it had been so long ago and across state lines, there wasn't much they could do. It was my word against his.

My mother's family told me I should blame the devil for what happened to me, not my uncle. That was bad enough, but then they took it even further—they had the audacity to blame me for turning him gay, saying that I wanted him to take advantage of me and that I needed to repent for trying to destroy his life. My mother tried to argue back, but at that point, it was her family versus us two.

We got the heck out of there and never looked back. It's been about ten years since I saw any of them. They blame my mother for raising a devil-loving son, and it didn't help matters when I finally came out. The last thing they told us is that they'd let both my mother and I back in, if and only if, I admitted they were right and would take on conversion therapy to get straight.

I think they are still surprised I haven't taken them up on their offer. I don't know, and I don't care. My family is super small now, and I couldn't be more pleased.

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27. Don’t Discourage

I was always anti-social and the complete opposite of athletic. When I began to try and work out to gain some muscle, I got teased by my parents. All that did was discourage me and make me want to quit. This could go for anything. Is your kid antisocial? The, "Well look who decided to leave their cave and join us," is wholly toxic and just encourages them to stay in their room.

If your kid decides to make a positive change in their life, don't discourage them just so you can get an easy laugh.

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28. The World's Biggest Jerk

My mother didn’t want kids, yet she never bothered to prevent having all three of us to different men. She tried to have my dad put in prison for taking advantage of her, even though he was the sweetest guy ever. He even worked two jobs to support us and would come home to a filthy house and my diaper completely loaded. Her worst moment, however, still makes my blood boil when I think about it.

She tried to put all three of us in foster care, but luckily, my dad got custody of me along with my other half-sisters. I last saw my mother when I was six because she had seen that my dad was successful and wanted to use him for money. He brought me to a park to meet her and she blatantly ignored me. He’s a smart man, so he realized she was just trying to take advantage of him and that’s the last time he ever saw her.

She never sent one birthday card or ever paid a dime of child support to my dad. Congrats mom, you’re the world's biggest jerk.

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29. A Major Headache

On one occasion, I had a migraine so bad, I politely requested that my mother help keep my sisters as quiet as possible because I was hurting. I even asked to just be let out of the car so I could bus home, but she wouldn't let me. Instead of showing me a shred of empathy, my mother decided to cause me even more pain, exclaiming, "You’re the reason behind every problem in this family."

They wouldn’t help me with problems, and they wouldn’t let me help myself. How the heck was I the reason behind every problem? You think I actually want migraines?? No, I don’t. It hurts so bad that it’s increased my pain tolerance to the point that I have to have oozing pus sacs before I even notice an infection. I didn’t ask for that amount of pain.

If I had a choice I wouldn’t hurt, but sure, I caused every problem in the family by having chronic migraines.

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30. It's No Use

My dad disowned my half-sister (his biological daughter). She had a fling with a guy, had her third child, and he beat her up and ditched her. She had her kids taken away from her because of the unsafe environment her boyfriend put the family in. She then turned to hard substances and shoplifting to deal with her depression. She was put into prison multiple times as a result, and she refused to go to her court dates.

This kept happening for a year until she finally told my dad she wanted to get help. He paid for her to go to rehab, but she didn’t go. She kept asking him for money and he just kept giving it to her, thinking she really needed it. Nope...she just kept wasting his money to get her fix. At one point, she went missing for a few days, and my dad was so worried for her.

When he finally found her, he broke down in tears. She had almost lost her life in Mississippi and even after she recovered, she still went back to doing substances. At that point, my dad had enough. He tried to help her for several years, but he just couldn’t anymore. She’s now in her 30s, and you just can’t force someone to get rehab.

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31. Too Little, Too Late

My grandfather forced me to sit in his car and tell him I loved him when I was 12 because I literally did not know how to say it. He's the only relative that consistently has said it to me throughout my life, which I appreciate. My parents never said such things to me, either of them. Now that I am grown and can take care of myself, my dad wants a relationship with me and tells me he loves me.

My mom will sometimes text me that she loves me. I always say it back, but part of me wonders why they waited so long. And I do feel bitter towards them both. I NEEDED their love and affection as a kid. Now that I'm a grown woman, I've long since learned how to live without it. It does feel like too little, too late with both my parents. I don't make time for them now because they forced me into raising myself and figuring out life alone.

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32. The Wrong Thrills

My sister was a perfectly normal and happy person until she turned 16—out of nowhere, she joined a gang and started breaking into houses and stuff...She even took my things without permission on multiple occasions. The local authorities had her tested for substances a dozen times and she was always clean, so my parents figured it was a psychological issue.

They spent $10,000 for her to stay in a psych facility to try and find out if she had a mental disorder or had been abused since there was no indication of other underlying issues. One day, she demanded more money from my parents for a startling reason—she said that she needed to get rid of "another" baby. That's when my parents lost it... no one had known she was ever pregnant, let alone multiple times.

They said that they would take the baby but she refused to go through with the pregnancy, so they cut her off then and there... and then it was like she literally never existed. I asked her why she was living her life that way the last time I saw her, and all she could say was, "Because it isn't boring."

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33. Being Up On Stage

I was always the shy and quiet kid my whole life until I found dance and realized I absolutely loved being on stage, which then led me to start auditioning for theatre productions. My confidence was knocked from the start by my mother always telling me I wasn’t good enough. She pushed my buttons incessantly, always trying to get a reaction out of me.

I know it's stupid, but sometimes, I'd bail on auditions just because she'd convinced me that I'd never do well. I only noticed how much this affected me when, one year, we were standing decorating the Christmas tree, when my mother turned to me and said, "You’re always so dramatic, you should definitely audition for this character in that musical.”

After condescendingly telling me that I was “definitely suited for the part," I burst into tears. To my shame, I chickened out of that audition at the last minute.

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34. Stuck With Me

My mother would never answer this. At present, I am 32. Yes, I am divorced; but I do not see that as a failing. I make good money. I support myself. I live 2,200 miles from my hometown because it was a dump. In short, I see myself as a success. My father passed several years ago. He did the best he could. He loved me and he was proud of me.

My mother, on the other hand, was the opposite. In her eyes, I was an accident—I was born only 10 months after my sister. My father was Catholic and my mother was spineless. It was never planned, but they didn't use birth control, so they were stuck with me. Eventually, she divorced my dad when I was four, and she took her anger out on me by mentally and physically hurting me every day that I lived with her.

I finally stopped speaking to her in 2015.

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35. Taking A Stand

My parents required pretty strict obedience. I tended to push back a lot. But I feel like the “because I said so” demand to respect their authority without question messed me up. Though I’m smart and capable, I often ask questions to confirm answers I’m fairly sure are right. I have trouble pushing back against authority even when I know I’m being taken advantage of.

I tend to take people at their word too much, which I figure is better to trust than always be suspicious, but I do get taken from time to time. I stay under shitty managers longer than I should. I lashed out and broke my three-year-olds dresser once. We were using a naughty-chair method instead of the spanking I’d grown up with.

I realized I was out of line and put myself in the naughty chair for my kids’ sakes. Told my Dad and he thought that was ridiculous because “the parent is always right.” I think that’s when I realized the problems I grew up with. I’m not always right. I’m a pretty good parent, but I get distracted, get tired, get caught up in my head, and end up not being as engaged as I should be.

Because of that, I make mistakes. So, I let my kids push back sometimes. They need to be able to stand up for themselves when they think their right. My oldest will tell me when I’m off the handle about something. I don’t like it in the moment, but I can tell he’s right. Our competitive culture and lifestyles have all of us being coerced into doing stuff for other people, be it working or buying.

I want my kids to be able to resist that and know how to stand up for themselves.

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36. The Rabbit Hole

The son had a serious knee injury at age 16 in the late '90s when the new pharmaceuticals were being sold as amazing non-addictive pain meds for all ages. I personally think he came out of the double knee surgery addicted. After that, he fell into drinking and using substances whenever he could get them. He begged and borrowed to get those pain meds.

At 18, he moved out because his parents were interfering with his life too much. One time, his mother was out of town on a business trip, so he kicked in her front door, took all her jewelry and anything else he thought he could sell or trade easily. Eventually, his parents paid for him to go to rehab and they called in all sorts of favors to get him into a vocational apprentice program.

He did okay for a few months...until he made one decision that ruined everything. He decided to take the general contractor's tools from the warehouse and sell them to get money for substances. And just like that, he was back in the rabbit hole. To protect themselves, his siblings and his family friends basically disowned him. Everyone was warned to not let him into their houses, cars, or places of business for any reason.

It's been an education. You can't fix an addict. They can only do it themselves when they're ready. Many will never be ready.

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37. I'm A Weirdo

"Why do you have to be so weird!! Listening to your weird music and stuff like that!!" That’s what my parents said to me. My favorite music genre was indie-pop. I really, really, enjoyed that music, but after I got that comment, I felt like I wasn't supposed to be venturing outside of the mainstream—like it was wrong to be enjoying something different.

It really messed me up for a while because I would shun other people for having non-mainstream interests...I thought they were weird.

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38. Rejecting The Faith

I can approach this from the other side. My parents have disowned me. I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and when I rejected the faith right after high school, they kicked me out. I didn't know things were bad until I came home that day—all of the locks had been changed out. I was paying rent, so I had the local authorities come and tell them that I had to be let back in.

I lived at home for another month before being kicked out again. After that, I was homeless for a little while. The last time I spoke to my parents, I was telling them that I was getting married. They had no interest in attending.

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39. Wicked Stepsisters

My Dad married a woman with two daughters who were treated like princesses. I was the oldest and was admittedly a nightmare as a teenager. Unfortunately for my younger brother, he was constantly compared to our stepsisters, who could do no wrong, or told if he did anything wrong “he would turn out just like your rotten sister.”

One of the stepsisters was a devious, conniving little brat who would do things like hide my textbook right before the bus came and then smile innocently when asked if she knew where it was. She was old enough to know what a mean move this was. So I would get in trouble for not being organized and she would sit there and smile knowing it was in her room.

We hated spending time over there because it was clear we were invading their happy home and not welcome. When my dad passed a few years ago I wrote his Obituary and omitted his 2nd wife from the mentions. That felt good.

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40. The List

My son is a psychopath, and I mean that literally— from an unusually young age, he met every single criterion for ASPD. His behavior became increasingly aggressive, inappropriate, and alarming as time went on. Eventually, we made a startling discovery when looking in his room—he had documented a long list of incidents and offenses that he had committed against his peers and even close family members.

We informed the authorities, social services, and local mental health teams of everything we had found, and pushed for their help in stopping him and keeping everyone safe. He was placed into a secure home with constant supervision, and we've made it absolutely clear that we will never accept him back home. We cannot support him because of what he has done, and what he continues to do.

Our priority is protecting his victims and potential victims, and making sure everyone is safe and supported. He's incapable of empathy, and he acts without consideration for others. He's caused so much harm, but at the same time, he's still our son...we love him and we don't want any harm to come to him either (despite feeling like he would deserve it at times).

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41. Who Should You Thank?

After doing extra work to get my grades up in Math and Algebra, for the first time in many years, I wasn’t afraid to go to the parent-teacher conference. And when my principal and math teacher told my parents that she was proud of my improvement in math, my mother said, “Thank you for his grades,” to which my principal said “No, that’s all your son’s work. I did nothing different.”

My mother just stood there, shook her head in disbelief, and didn’t bother to congratulate me on my achievements. For some reason, she simply couldn’t fathom her child doing well. If anything positive ever happened to me, she kept thanking God as if I didn’t do anything to achieve it.

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42. The Package

Five years ago, my daughter was put into prison for selling substances at a local music festival. After $15,000 in lawyer, bail, and miscellaneous fees, she accepted a plea deal and four years probation. A year after she was taken in, she was accepted at the private university where I work. All seemed to be going great...until the authorities caught her in a felonious act.

She was picking up a package at the post office—the package was from Germany and contained a disturbing amount of a substance. She's been in the county for over a year now and her bail/bond is $20,000. I suffered a nervous breakdown over the whole situation, and following the advice my therapist gave me, I cut off all contact with her.

My husband and I still try very hard to provide for her, but all our efforts end up being pointless. She's looking at spending the next 10 to 20 years in prison, so she's basically disowned at this point.

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43. Overprotection

My mom was very overprotective with me until I actually got some friends when I was 17. At first, she never would let me do anything or go anywhere with them. I'm her only child, and she just wanted to protect her baby. I finally convinced her to let me have some fun. I told her that I had never given her a reason not to trust me, so she should let me be.

After she realized I could handle myself, she quit being so overprotective. Once that happened, I was much happier and had much more confidence. She has said she wishes she would have lightened up when I was younger because I was much happier with freedom.

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44. Out Of Mind

I disowned my brother once. My brother has had a long history of substance use. Somehow, he managed to finish his degree, but then he switched to drinking. We were living together while we attended college and one time, he had a breakdown on me. I wanted to call the authorities, but my parents wouldn’t let me. Gradually, I let that incident slide.

Later on, my brother moved out to work, but he quickly messed up at his first career job. He moved back in with my parents and that's when they discovered how bad his drinking problem was. They forbade drinks in the house, threatening to kick him out if they ever found any. Well, one night, my brother came home late at night, and he was completely hammered.

My parents were angry with him, and he matched their anger. They tried to calm him down, but it was too late—he started throwing heavy punches at my dad and we had no choice but to call 9-1-1. The authorities quickly arrived and took him away. At that moment, I completely decided he didn’t exist for me. I had no connection anymore.

I am very surprised to say that after a year of rehab, I was very slowly able to let him back into my life. It’s working out now and we’re close.

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45. Nobody Needs Braces

I desperately needed braces, but my mom refused the orthodontist's advice. Her reason? Totally brutal. She told him, "She won't ever be a movie star anyway." She also told Dad maybe it would keep me out of a home for unwed mothers if they let me buy the horse I wanted. Huh? I was only 11 and it pretty much screwed with my head.

Even good parents, watch what you say to your kids. It can have a lasting impact. It may sound cute or snarky sarcastic to you, but little kids have big ears.

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46. Cheaters... Prosper?

My ex-wife cheated on me with a close friend from my job during quarantine. Apparently, she’d been crying and making up sob stories to convince my family that I was the one who had cheated on her. When I found out what she'd been doing behind my back, I wanted to make the divorce clean. Two months later, I moved away for work only to find out a sad truth...

My family members were all still great friends with her and they took her side, believing that I was the cheater. The only blood relative who believes me is my youngest sister. It's depressing.

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47. University Woes

I've been having a hard time in university. Three years ago, I had to take a year-long break to pass the courses I failed and now I'm struggling to find the motivation to work on my engineering thesis. Sometimes I can't help but wonder if there's something wrong with me and compare myself to my peers and how most of them completed their studies last year and already have jobs while I'm held back by a year again.

For the past few months, I tried to hide that I'm having problems again from my parents because I knew that my mom wouldn't tell me that it is okay to take my time as long as I get there. She would much rather compare me to the people my age like I've been doing. And that's exactly what she did when I finally told her.

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48. Good Riddance

I raised my own sister for several years. I was a senior in high school when my parents had her—it was completely unexpected. They were 58 and 55. I never really got to know her much as I went away to college when she was five months old; plus, I was in the Air Force by the time she was a year old. The way life was working out, we just never really got time together.

Fast forward when she turned two years old and our dad passed—my stepmother stepped in to raise her. She was a terrible parent, so when my sister was 11 and begging for my help, I took a leave of absence and went to see her. When I got there, I was met with a huge surprise—the "stepmonster" was more than happy to get attorneys to draw up the paperwork for me to become my sister's guardian, and even pay for it.

A few years went by and things were okay...until I caught her making these intimate videos online, talking dirty for creepy guys. It was a whole ordeal trying to get those videos down and suing the people who hired her to make them. Out of rage, she ran away, but then she was caught breaking and entering shortly after. A B&E charge at 14, for trying to take the phone of a boy she was dating to see if he was talking to other girls...

It happened on base and I managed to talk it out of being a bigger thing...but then she got a second B&E charge for breaking into the NCO club to sneak out bottles. I was told I had to leave the base at that point and that my security clearance was suspended to make sure she wasn't putting me in a position where I could be compromised. Up until that point, I still tried to be there for her.

When she turned 18, she was accepted to RISD, graduated with honors, and had an actual decent-paying job at a web company. I thought she was finally trying to change for the better, but I was so, so wrong—she started getting high a lot, and eventually, she lost her job. She then dipped into her trust fund when she turned 24 and blew over $400K in two years, with nothing to show for it.

She also had multiple cases against her for possession. But the worst was when she got picked up by the local authorities for selling substances out of state. While awaiting trial, she was caught holding enough packaged goods to receive a distribution charge. By then, I hadn't heard from her for almost seven years and only managed to keep up with her life by reading the law enforcement blotter.

Somehow, she was out of prison in under three years. I heard she dimed a bunch of people out to make it happen. She showed up at my house, asking for a place to stay. I said I couldn't have her in my house, but I'd get her a place for the night and then help her find a place of her own. I thought that was a fair offer, but she seemed to think otherwise. Later that night, she came up with a plan that pushed me beyond my limits.

She broke into my house, trying to spin some story that she was looking for something she dropped inside earlier that day. When I told her she had to go, she threatened to call DCFS and tell them I was hurting my kids if I didn't go with her to an ATM and give her all the money I could withdraw. I told her to get the heck off of my property before I exercised the castle defense law and dropped her.

I took out a restraining order the next day, and in doing so, I found out that she once again left the state and violated her parole. Back to prison, she went. Since then, she's been dead to me.

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49. Making The Grade

Throughout my childhood, I had to earn anything I wanted with my grades. Even the smaller things. Want to hang out with my friends? Gotta get more than 90% next exam. Want a birthday gift or a cake? Top of the class. Want to go on a school trip? Tough, go study. Many times, my parents would say it because they knew I wouldn’t get the marks they said.

In one way it helped that I ended up becoming a person who really pushes myself to do really well in what I do, but it also really shattered my childhood because I don’t remember having much of a life. I had to earn my life through grades which I could never really reach.

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50. Salt In The Wound

When I was 11, my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer (it was her second diagnosis in four years) and he did not want to look after her like he did before. He also had a new girlfriend, and he had no issues leaving us to take care of her family. He was out of our lives for years. Then, a few years later, my mom passed. My brother, grandmother, and I met up to discuss who I was going to live with.

At that point, I felt excruciating sadness knowing that I no longer had parents, but I hit a new low when my father showed up out of nowhere with a heartbreaking declaration—he announced that he was in the process of legally emancipating himself from me. He went out of his way to legally declare that I was no longer his child, just so that my brother or grandmother couldn't seek child support.

Needless to say, it stung coming only days after my mother's funeral.

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51. Hard To Love

My parents are something else. My mother was always paranoid, and got it into her head that I wanted to "leave the family." It was wild. She had no proof but would continue to say that God had revealed my innermost thoughts to her...And then she'd go nuts and beat me. This kind of toxicity continued into my adulthood. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

My dad also had a sadistic streak. I wish it wasn't true, but he did a lot of painful things and gleefully announced that it was enjoyable. One time, he hit me so hard with a rattan cane that I bled. His reason? Utterly despicable...He said, "I wanted to test the cane." And then came the isolation tactics. They tried so hard to ensure that I never made friends.

They had weirdly latched on to me and didn't want to let go, constantly telling me that I'm "hard to love" and that "nobody will love you like us." It was messed up. But don't worry, I eventually escaped. Unfortunately, I still needed a ton of therapy to help process all that baggage. I still do. Even now, I can't forget what they told me on the day I left...

Obviously, they were furious to find out I was leaving; they said I should have been beaten more as a child. Luckily, I’m doing so much better being out of their life, with no contact. Sure, I have severe complex PTSD, but at least I'm not being hurt anymore.

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52. Gone Away

My ex-wife and I married young when I was in the army and she became pregnant six months into our marriage. I don’t think she connected with him at all after he was born. The most she did with him was take Instagram photoshoots where she painted herself as the #1 mommy.  When he turned three years old, I left the army.

A year after that, she ran for the hills. I remember it like it was yesterday. I sat down with her at a local restaurant to talk about divorce plans. We split all of our financials and material items down the middle. When we finally got to the custody issue (something I dreaded to discuss because fathers never gain custody in my area), she caught me off-guard with her shocking response: “I want absolutely no responsibility.”

I asked her if she was sure, and she was. That one sentence hurt me more than anything else. My biological father wanted nothing to do with me and now I was seeing it happen with my own child. I received full custody and she remarried a year afterward. Her parents try their best to be a part of his life, but she herself still avoids him. He’s seven now and he's used to it.

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53. Another Family

So, I'm the eldest. My mom had me when she was only 18, and my dad was 16. He left shortly after, and after that, I ended up with a terrible stepdad for about 10 years. My next stepdad just didn't like me at all. Mom would constantly make fun of me for being fat, even at the times I wasn’t, and often used me as her emotional dumping ground because she has unresolved issues.

She had two other daughters during this time. When my second stepdad came along, they tried to make a better home situation, and I couldn't help but be jealous of how much better my sisters were treated. At lunch one day, my mom broke down crying and made a horrifying confession...She said that she saw my sisters as a second chance for how much she screwed up with me.

At the time, I was happy to hear it because I want my sisters to have a much better life. But I'm still in the same place mentally. She didn't really try to fix anything between us. When I told her about my first stepdad, she said she didn't want to report him because of something to do with her taxes.

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54. Liar, Liar

My younger sister she claimed our older brother took advantage of her. She almost got him thrown in prison. When we found out the reason why she lied, we were floored. She made the whole thing up simply because she wanted to see if I still cared about her. She's done other horrible things in the past as well, like stealing money from my mom, threatening to stab me (while she had the knife in her hand) because I wouldn’t let her borrow my art supplies, and sleeping around with her friends' boyfriends at her school.

Oh, and she’s only 15, by the way. This has been going on for several years.

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55. Pigging Out

I was around 16 at the time. I was in the passenger seat as my dad drove to Mcdonald's to get dinner for me, him, and my mom. I've been overweight my entire life, and I would have been around 260 to 270 pounds at the time. I asked for a Big Mac combo, and a 10-piece nugget. I liked the variety. He turned to me and frustratedly said, "Why do you always have to be such a pig?"

He apologized profusely a few minutes later, but it's always stuck with me, sometimes playing on a loop in my head. It's made worse by the fact that out of my parents, he's usually the sane and nice one. My mom is completely and insanely mean, and I'm used to that. Him saying something like that kind of broke me, and even though we're fairly close, it's never left my mind.

My mother once broke down crying when I was about six. When I asked her what was wrong, she went on a rant about how if she could go back, she wouldn't have been with my dad, and she wouldn't have had me. That screwed me up for years. When I brought it up in an argument when I was 16, she then accused me of lying, and said that I was always trying to make her the "bad guy."

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56. They’re A Little Too Close

My first real relationship at the beginning of college was with a girl who had a strange dad. The first time I went over to her and her family's house, her dad walked in her room and started massaging her feet while she was laying on the bed and he was all like, "I love you, sweetie." Then, he introduces himself to me after like two minutes of foot rubbing.

I was like, "Um, what the heck was that?!" when he left. She said that he's just an affectionate dad. But that wasn't all. She then told me how they hold hands while watching movies. A massive yikes.

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57. Beast Of Burden

I am the youngest of three kids. My siblings are six and seven years older than me. My parents always talked about how they didn’t plan for kids. I didn’t think my mom could have any and then had two back-to-back. They couldn’t afford two kids so when I came along a lot later-then they were really broke. Most of my childhood memories involve my parents saying to me, “Man we really couldn’t afford anything after you came along. Life got so much harder. But we love you.”

I get they didn’t mean any harm but always having to hear about how much of a hardship and a burden it was to love and care for me really messed with me. I am in therapy and have been for years—and I am okay. I am in a great place and I love myself. But a part of me always feels bad when people say they love me. Because to me, love implies a burden, and I don’t want to be a burden to anyone.

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58. The Facts Of Life

One time, when I was about 10, my dad called me into his room. He and my mom were there, completely naked, standing around and laying their clothes down ready to get dressed. They acted like the situation was completely normal and asked me about some random thing. I eventually blocked this memory out and thought it to be a dream. But that wasn't all.

10 years later, they told me that was their way of showing me what a body looked like because I was getting close to "that age."

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59. Eating Disorders

When I was only eight, my mother told me that nobody likes a fat girl. I wasn't even really overweight, but her comments made me spiral in the worst way possible. Before long, I'd developed a dangerous eating disorder. But it didn't end there. It's been more than 30 years and I still grapple with the consequences of my disorder. The whole eating thing is still a struggle.

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60. No Shame

While most of the family was at the funeral for my husband's grandmother, his cousin broke into her house and took her checkbook. Meanwhile, on my side of the family, my cousin ransacked my aunt's jewelry and tried to break into a safe in the house while said aunt was in the hospital on her deathbed. Honestly, how do these people live with themselves?

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61. Low Grades

"I gave birth to you, gave you food and shelter, and this is how you repay me? You're worthless and will never amount to anything in life." That’s what my toxic mother said when we got into an argument over my low grades in middle and high school because of a possible unchecked learning disability that she doesn't believe in.

To this day, she thinks I got low grades because I was lazy.

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62. Turns Out They Didn’t Like Him

I went over to pick her up for a first date. While there, I met the parents and they seemed nice. Or so I thought. While we were out, her parents called the authorities and told them I kidnapped her. It was really awkward nearly getting incarcerated.

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63. My Dad’s Words

I've never been good enough for my dad. Over and over, I've heard the same rant: "Why can't you be as successful as them?" "You are supposed to set the example." "You are so lazy they work 10 times harder than you." Well, I'll tell you why. Maybe it's because I had to start working at 15 because my dad couldn't afford to put three kids through school.

Maybe it's because his ex-wife drank all the money away or gave it to her kid. Maybe if I had the time to study instead of wasting my nights manufacturing faked IDs, I'd have better grades. Maybe then, I'd be able to make something of myself and not spend my entire adult life in retail or food.

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64. A Ruthless Cycle

As Jehovah's Witnesses, my parents disowned my siblings and me several times since we were in our late teens. One of the JW “rules” is that you are not to associate with others who know “the truth” but refuse to follow it, including family members. In other words, parents are encouraged to disown any children who have left the religion.

The first time was when I was 19. It upset me and I was heartbroken. They'd eventually changed their minds, only to do it again a couple of years later. Once it became a cycle, I stopped caring and no longer tried to be a part of their lives at all.

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65. Back In My Day

"By the time we were your age we had our careers sorted." That's all well and good, but to begin with, it's not 30 years ago. Secondly, University isn't cheap like it was in the 70s, and jobs are a LOT more competitive. And finally, the world has been under lockdown for a year. How in the world am I supposed to get a career sorted? It irritates me to no end.

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66. Not Something You Ever Forget

In Grade 10, I was seeing a girl. We lost our virginities to each other and fooled around for about a month. One spring day, my mom comes charging down to my room, more upset than I have ever seen her. She rips my laptop out of my hands, telling me to stay in my room. When she said it, my face turned white. As it turns out, her dad came to my house and he knew about some pictures his daughter sent to me.

Also, both her parents were officers and they threatened to charge me for having possession of the photos. The next time I saw those people was at an Easter dinner two weeks later with her entire family. It was one of the most awkward situations of my life. I tried stuffing for the first time that day, and to this day it reminds me of this situation.

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67. End Of Year Ritual

I always hated the end of the school year because we had to empty out our desks and take all our work home. My mom would go through our backpacks, but she would only go through my notebooks and make fun of my drawings, stories, and call them stupid, among other things. She would then read it out loud to my siblings and dad. Same thing with my diaries. They would just laugh.

Now they tell my kids, "Your mom always loved to draw, I don't know why she stopped!" I wonder why…

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68. Bloody Poker Game

Me and a few of my friends used to hold this poker night each week, which my dad used to play too. My dad got particularly inebriated one night and was foolishly getting on his bicycle to go home. It was icy outside, and we spent around 15 minutes trying to persuade him to get a lift from one of my friends. He refused.

Ten minutes later there's a knock at the front door, and when I opened it—I couldn't believe my eyes. There’s my dad with blood dripping down and covering half his face. All he said was: "I fell over." He then came in and fell over again. Next, he washed his face and went to sleep on the couch.

Dramatic Class Reunion Stories factsPixabay

69. Blessed Disbelief

My parents are very religious, and I was born into the church. At age 16, I decided I wanted to leave that church for multiple reasons, but ultimately, I just didn’t believe anymore. My parents were devastated, so much so that my dad fell into a bit of a depression. The sad part? He just kept blaming himself and asking, "What did I do wrong?"

I am now 34 years old, happily married, and out of the church. I have two beautiful boys and am just living a good life. But it still gets to me that no matter how happy I am, my parents will always think I would be happier in the church, and they feel they have done something wrong as parents because of this.

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70. A Pizza Fight

"We're moving and you're not welcome." This is what my dad said to me after he took my sister's pizza that I made, ate it in front of me, and then threw the pizza at me after I asked him why the heck he's like that and walked away. We were supposed to be moving to a new place the next couple of weeks after this fight.

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71. You Missed A Spot

My brother and I spent the day cleaning the bathroom. However, I missed a dirty spot. Later I ended up overhearing my dad tell my brother: "The lesson you need to take from this is to never rely on your brother for anything."  This one stuck out to me above the other insults I heard during childhood, as my parents were typically a lot more direct with their insults.

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72. Officially Motherless

My mom's plan was to divorce my dad, take his house, and live off the child support money. But when I turned 13, my mom realized she wasn't making a dime off my presence any longer. Because she no longer had any use for me, I was kicked out at age 13. But the jokes on her—I'm successful now and when my younger brother had to stop giving her money due to his financial crisis job loss, guess who called to "reconcile" with me? I never returned her call.

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73. The Boys Aren't Back In Town

When I was around eight years old, my mom took me shopping. We were walking towards the mall behind a group of young guys in their late teens and early 20s. They were laughing and joking, seemingly having the time of their life. It looked like a lot of fun. I pointed at them and told my mom that it reminded me of the song my dad used to play, “The Boys are Back in Town,” an old Thin Lizzy song.

My mom looked straight ahead and bluntly answered, "You will never experience that." It wasn't exactly the kind of answer I had hoped to get. All I could get out of my mouth was "...What?..." "You won't," was her final say on the matter. Way to ruin a Friday evening Mom.

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74. Not My Family

My father almost attacked me with a butcher knife. If my ex-boyfriend wasn’t there, I probably would have but seriously hurt. I left my father's apartment that day and never looked back. I thought that would be the end of my nightmare (my dad had been hurting me for years and I never told anyone), but it was just the beginning. When I left he told everyone that I had gotten pregnant and ran away with my boyfriend.

That absolutely did not happen, but they seemed to believe him anyway. I later found out that he’d been telling his family awful things about my mom and me for YEARS. Of course, who are they going to believe? I have no desire to be in contact with my family.

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75. Ruining The Family

When the authorities arrived at our house, my father said I ruined the family. I had actually forgotten I had told someone in school about stuff that was happening at home until they showed up. My father didn’t take it very well. He was embarrassed that I had said something. I’m 42 now. I have boys of my own and I’m proud to say they don’t have a relationship with my dad.

They don’t know him. Instead, my father-in-law is the best grandfather to them.

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76. Lopsided Love

My mom used to say that I didn't love her. Each day, it got worse and worse. Slowly, it started getting to me, until soon enough, I really did stop loving her. She's not a drinker, but there have been quite a few nights where she came home very intoxicated and said horrible things to my brother and me. She also lies often. I've caught her stealing my money for gambling and she wastes $200 to $300 weekly on lotto tickets.

She's so irresponsible that she's been fired from around six jobs in the span of two years. I get called many horrible names by her on a daily basis. But there's one thing she does that really bugs me—after screaming at me during an argument, she'll try to "make it up to me," and when I'm not emotionally ready to reciprocate her affection, she goes full-on psycho and goes back to blaming our horrible relationship on me.

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77. The First Loser

When I was a small child playing Star Wars Pod Racers on the Nintendo 64 I finally got 2nd place in one of the races I had been losing on for weeks. I was so pumped about it, but when I ran to tell my mother—her response was devastating: “Wow! Ya know second place is the first loser.” My dreams were absolutely crushed.

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78. Silver Linings

My siblings and I have stopped interacting with our oldest brother. We found out that years earlier, he had taken advantage of at least two boys. He was an adult at the time. He showed no remorse and turned the story around to say that those boys were at fault. It was so disgusting to watch someone you grew up with treat people so poorly and show such a blatant disregard for others.

But the good news is that the remaining four siblings have become closer and we now are able to appreciate the good we see in each other. It’s true when they say that if you could pick your family it would look much different than it is!

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79. A Great Graduation

I was graduating from high school, and everyone was asking me what I was going to do with my life. My Mom said, “Just tell everyone that you’re going to be a bum so if you become anything better than that, they’ll be surprised!” She’s a toxic, competitive narcissist who has been jealous of everything I did since I was born.

Maybe because she dropped out of high school, and I didn’t. Her sisters saw this trait and told me.

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80. The Sting Of Regret

My mom ceased all contact with my much older half-brother. He was a dangerous, angry addict who would sneakily take things from us and beat up his elders, including my mom. At one point, she had enough and let him go. He passed this year and his funeral was the first time my mom had seen him since she cut him off 15 years ago. I now have my own kids and I've always supported my mom's decision. That said, I feel so, so sorry for her, more so than when I was just her kid. I can't imagine ever reaching that point with my kids and I'm sure she never did either.

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81. All In Your Head

"It's all in your head." Of course, dad. It's called a mental illness. Maybe if you didn't gaslight me and actually took me to the doctor like you were supposed to half a year ago, I wouldn't have tried to become new paint for a Choo-choo train. But hey, what do I know. You dropped out of high school, and I almost graduated with a perfect GPA if it wasn't for all that. But yeah. You know more about mental health than me. Definitely.

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82. Hanging By A Thread

It’s really tough to love my son. He’s almost 14 and he’s currently out of our home at a treatment facility. He’s averaged two 9-1-1 calls a year for the last two years, and he’s attacked my wife, daughters, and the neighborhood kids several times. He ran away from school, ran away from home, and tried to push me off the roof of our house (after threatening to jump off and hurt himself).

We have become “that family” in our town where the local authorities are called to our home on a semi-regular basis. He’s been getting more violent as he gets older (not to mention bigger and stronger) and I honestly don’t see an end in sight. But there's a key fact that I’ve been leaving out and it could explain a lot of his behavior—he's been diagnosed as high functioning autistic and is also bipolar.

That’s like putting walls around a tornado and expecting it to stay inside the walls. A lot of what has occurred he had little control over because of the way his mind works. He’s constantly at battle with himself. My wife and I have tried desperately to give him the best life we can while keeping ourselves and our daughters safe, but I’m tired.

It’s been eight and a half years since we started going through this with him and I’ve been ready to throw in the towel on him for a while...But my wife refuses to let him go, so we wake up every morning trying to give him the best life for him and our girls.

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83. Liar, Liar

My dad would call me a liar, even when I was telling the truth, about the smallest of things. I remember, very clearly, him leaning really close to my face and yelling “LIAR!” when I was around 10. Now that I'm an adult, he's worked to make amends, but the scars remain. I see that moment replaying over him like a mask whenever I feel the walls coming down a little, and I find it hard to get past.

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84. Cold And Distant

I'm on the spectrum, Asperger’s, so I wasn't the most easy-going child. I was a very self-isolating and unsocial child, so when I annoyed the heck out of my mom or would behave poorly, she would say to me something that still, to this day, affects every relationship I pursue. She said, "No one will ever love you."  We kind of patched our relationship over the years, but I resent her and can't help giving her the cold shoulder.

I fear that we'll be distant forever.

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85. Enjoying Your Job

My Dad told me: “You’re not supposed to find a job you enjoy, you find a job that pays well and live with it.” And when I told him what my ambitions were, he got angry and shouted: “You want to be a small business owner? Do you want to be poor for the rest of your life?” Subsequently, 15 years later I am not a small business owner and can’t find the courage to do it.

My life has revolved around his approval.

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86. About Your Other Parent...

In my experience, divorced parents that say stuff like, "Don't talk about that to your ‘other parent," or,"Your ‘other parent’ is trying to manipulate you." It really screws with the kid's head. If you're ever going through a divorce and have children, please find a way to sort out your issues with your former spouse without involving your children more than necessary.

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87. Spoiling Everything

When I was younger I would frequently act without thinking, one time I kinda spoiled a trip to my grandmother's house at the last moment by doing something stupid, then later on at my own home, I overheard my family talking about it through a wall. In reference to my behavior, I heard my mother say something I'll never forget: "He finds a way to ruin everything" and my father and sister seemed to agree.

At the time, it really hurt, and even now, the idea of being a burden to my family continues to eat at me.

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88. Compliments Or Not?

"People only tell you they like it because they don't want to hurt your feelings." My mom would make comments like that if I received a compliment on something she personally didn't like. I outgrew my mom's manipulative speech at a young age, but her comments messed my younger sister right up; poor girl constantly seeks validation she never actually trusts, no doubt because our mother sowed that seed.

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89. This Is Who I Am

My mom and I had a massive argument about LGBT people. I said it's natural and not a thing that should be debated, she said it's not natural and it goes against God's will. I asked her what she would do if I was gay, and she said she'd kick me out and I'd be dead to her. In truth, I'm bisexual. It broke my soul that my own mother could and would do that.

I'm only ever coming out when I eventually move out, which is probably not going to be for a long time. I have no tertiary education, a low paying job, no marketable skills...But when I do move out, I'm going to send her a picture of me kissing a girl while flipping off the camera.

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90. Meeting Due To Difficult Circumstances

I was dating this girl for about three months and got her pregnant. We decided it was best if we just got married. I was 27 and she was 20. I drove to my parents' house to tell them and at the same time she went to her parents' house to tell them. I offered to go with her, but she said, "You don't know my dad." This was true because while she had met my parents, I had never met her parents.

I was sitting at my parents' house, listening to them tell me how I was throwing my life away. Then, the phone rings. It was my girlfriend. She said I needed to go over to her parents' house because they wanted to meet me. I showed up at their house and was escorted to the living room, where I was asked to sit in a chair in the middle of the room. Thus began the most excruciating moments of my life.

Her family sat in a semi-circle around me and proceeded to grill me for two hours. "What were you thinking?" "You're seven years older than her, are you some kind of pervert?" "How do you plan on supporting our daughter and grandchild?" On and on and on. That was 20 years ago. I'm posting this from my in-laws' house sitting next to my 19-year-old daughter.

I'm still very much in love with my wife and her family still hates me and sees me as the dirty old man that took their daughter away from them.

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91. Getting The Message

Sooooo, I have a huge number of stories about this monstrosity of a man that I call my father-in-law. I really didn't expect to have many more new ones at this point, but life is full of surprises. Some back story is that this man has been awful towards me and mistreated me for many years. Never physically, mostly in the form of extreme name-calling.

Some of the other things he’s done to me have included gaslighting, making me feel guilty for completely normal things, blaming me for his lack of relationship with my son, etc. It goes on and on. Some more backstory is that I was pregnant with twins until January—when tragedy struck. They were stillborn. My husband and I were heartbroken, and are still trying to grieve and move past this.

Anyways, this morning I was at my computer working from home, making my to-do list and relishing the fact that I lost another pound on the scale, when suddenly a Facebook message comes through from my father-in-law. Now, this is weird because we're not friends on Facebook, even though we have sent messages to one another in the distant, distant past.

Also, I don’t really use Facebook anymore. I haven't for years at this point. But nevertheless, this man apparently somehow found out about my babies dying. He sent me a message so disturbing, it’s impossible to forget. It said: "Doesn't karma suck? The worst part is you still have a lot more coming :) !" Word for word, complete with the emoji and all. I was fuming—but, only for a few minutes.

It was like a PTSD response or something, because my adrenaline was running, my hands were shaking, I was afraid, the whole nine yards. But then I realized that this guy is just sad. He's sick and hateful. He doesn't love my son (his grandson), he loves his possessions and he hates me for taking one of his possessions (i.e. my son) away from him when we moved out of state.

He never even asked how my son is doing after losing his baby brother and sister. Sick, sick, sick. So, I made up a plan for revenge. I came to the decision to post on Facebook for the first time in like four years. I told all of those friends about the babies, the tragic loss, and finished off with the beautiful message my father-in-law sent me this morning.

Behavior like this cannot live in the sunlight. It thrives in the shadows. I was afraid of him for years, but I'm not afraid of him anymore! He doesn't have anything to take from me. He doesn't hold any power over me. I'm already getting messages from his family telling me how disgusting he is. I'm sure he's heard about my post by now. Public shaming for the win! In addition, my son is going to be 14 years old this month.

He's old enough now to hear the truth about his grandfather. So, if he wants to hear about it, I will tell him. If he doesn't, I'll respect that. My response to my father-in-law? "My son will know who his grandfather is. He loved those babies too." So, good luck to my father-in-law in trying to have a relationship with my son any time soon.

Does he not realize that my son actually loves me and our family? What a doofus. I'm sure he doesn't even realize that my son isn't a sweet six-year-old anymore and that he's capable of having his own thoughts and opinions now.

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92. Walk It Off

So, I can't walk very long distances, can't climb stairs at all, and am mostly in my wheelchair. However, my mother-in-law doesn't believe I need my wheelchair. The following is a part of a conversation I had with her. MIL: Can you walk? Me: Yes, depending on how far I have to walk and how I'm feeling that day. MIL: So you can walk. Then what's up with the wheelchair?

It was my birthday last week, and she decided to throw me a party…on the deck of her house that's currently under renovation. We get there, and the front of her house is all torn up. There's no walkway, there's cement and rocks everywhere. It was all blocking the front door. Basically, even if you weren't in a wheelchair you wouldn't have been able to get into the house through the front door.

According to my mother-in-law, that wasn't a problem! Since the party was on the deck and you don't need to go through the house to get to the deck, all you need to do is go to the backyard and climb the stairs on to the deck. Easy right? Not. By the way, she had not told anyone that her house was under renovation, so we were all taken aback.

When my husband and I get to the backyard, my mother-in-law and my husband's siblings were all on the deck having food and drinks. There was no feasible way for me to get up there unless I was carried. I was ready to leave until my brothers-in-law started clearing the tables and chairs and bringing them down onto the grass. At this point, my mother-in-law was having a fit—"That's my deck furniture!" or "It'll get grass stains!"

In the end, they all effectively moved the stuff down. She was grumbling but put on a nice face for the rest of the party. Later on, I heard her complaining about why I didn't just climb the stairs since I could walk. She just doesn't get that a person can walk AND need a wheelchair at the same time. So, that basically sums up what a disaster that day was.

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93. One Gifted Lady

My fiancé’s mother is a single mother, and she is waayyy overly attached to my fiancé. She seems to think she is entitled to be a part of every aspect of my fiancé’s life and that she must always come first in all situations. For example, she was livid when we got engaged because we didn’t visit her first after the proposal. She pitched a fit that we had stopped by my parents’ first to show them the ring.

When we did arrive at her house, she was so angry that she ended up throwing a cake at us in her driveway. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. She has made my life a nightmare since we got together, but it became much worse when I got pregnant. She has made numerous attempts to convince my fiancé to leave me because she doesn’t believe I am pregnant with his baby.

Her “proof” is that I was too fat, so I must be lying about the due date. This is just one of the many things she has done to hurt and embarrass me. We have limited our contact with her as a result, but she always seems to find a way to weasel back in. So, last week I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Both our families were not able to come to the hospital and will likely not be able to visit in person for a while.

My parents told me they planned to decorate the front of my house to welcome the baby home, and my mom said she had ordered a bunch of things off Etsy for the occasion. When I arrived home, I was surprised to see that there were no decorations. I didn’t think much of it and just assumed my family had run out of time. It wasn’t like them to forget, but I assumed there was a good explanation. Then I got a heart-stopping phone call.

My mom called me after I was settled and asked me how I liked the decorations and presents. I asked her what she was talking about and told her that there was nothing outside when I got home. My mom proceeded to text me several pictures of my house fully decorated in pink baby gear. I also noticed several wrapped presents on my porch in the picture.

They were also missing along with a large banner, balloon arrangements, and several other decorations. My mother told me one of the presents contained a little sweater knitted by my grandma that I wore as a baby. I had been looking forward to receiving this and passing it on to my daughter. I was extremely confused as we live in a rural area so porch pirates are not very common.

I asked my fiancé to check our security camera. He pulled up the footage and we were both shocked at what we saw. We saw his mother taking everything down and putting it all in her car. The footage was very clear and you can easily see her license plate in the video. My fiancé was livid and immediately called his mother. She tried to deny it at first but soon admitted what she had done.

She claimed she was angry that she was not given the opportunity to decorate our house herself. She said my family had insulted her by excluding her, and she began to cry about how horrible we are to her. My fiancé was not having it. He said she had one hour to bring everything back to our place or he would be calling the authorities.

She then laughed and said that she had already thrown everything into a donation bin and told us good luck finding it. My fiancé has already driven around to several donation bins in the area to check but hasn’t found anything yet. We now agree that she will have no contact with our child in the future. I am beyond done with her and I just hope this is all over.

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94. Don’t Bring A Knife To A Fishing Trip

My half-brothers are a bit older than me. One day, they were both sitting on our dock fishing. The oldest brother picked up a knife out of the tackle box. It was a brand new knife of some kind, specifically for gutting fish or something. I still can’t erase what happened next from my memory. The oldest brother looked at my middle brother and said, "Hmm, I wonder how sharp this knife is."

Then, without hesitation, he literally stabbed it into the top of the middle brother's thigh. He was totally casual about it too as if it was no big deal that the knife was in deep enough to STAND UPRIGHT by itself.

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95. Walk The Line

My stepbrother falsely identified himself as me one day when he was busted driving recklessly on a motorcycle. He was on probation for other charges at the time and didn't want to go to the slammer. I missed a whole day of work going to court when I was informed by phone that there was a bench warrant for failure to appear.

Once I got to court and the ticketing officer saw me, he took me to a conference room and that's where the disappointing truth was revealed. He literally described my little bro to a "T" and I double-checked that he had the correct home address for the punk. After he was released, I made sure he understood if he did it again. he would walk crooked for the rest of his life.

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96. A Fresh Start

Due to reasons, my mother-in-law had to move in with my husband and I for a while. I'm South Asian, and my husband is white. Indian food is what I was raised eating and I love it to this day. Currently, I suddenly have a lot more time to cook than I did before. I stocked my kitchen with rice, different spices and whatever else I would need to make what I wanted.

My husband doesn't mind and enjoys the food. My mother-in-law, on the other hand, does not. She's never liked me. Some stuff she says includes, "What kind of people use their hands to eat? Just use a knife and spoon like normal people." My husband has stuck up for me on all those occasions before, but having to live with her 24/7 is wearing him down.

After she moved in, she immediately started complaining. "Why does that smell so strong? It'll cling to the walls. Stop that." Or, "God, are you really feeding my son that? Just eat normal American food." At first, I decided to stay quiet. My husband did try to talk to her once, but that fell on deaf ears. Like always. So I woke up yesterday morning and go downstairs.

I chat with my husband and mother-in-law for a while. Go into the kitchen, open my pantry, and there. Is. Nothing. My rice, spices, flour, everything has been cleaned out. I had a rice-dispensing machine that I got a few years back and that was missing too. I go to the fridge, and besides milk, bread, butter, jam, and eggs, there was nothing.

I get my husband and ask him what happened to the food. He looks in confusion until my mother-in-law pipes up and says that she threw everything out. When asked why, she simply says, "My child isn't used to eating your types of food. Just make him what Americans eat.” That made me so angry. She has this insane thing about not acknowledging that I am American, or when she does she tells people that I got my citizenship through marriage.

Wrong on all accounts. I was born here and so were the last four generations of my family. As a cherry on top, I go grocery shopping and they were out of stock on basically everything that I wanted. I come home and she still has the audacity to ask why I'm not cooking like I usually do. I’m seriously going to destroy this woman by the end of all this.

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97. Left In The Cold

When I was 15, my dad made my mom choose between me or him. He was angry at me for the dumbest reason ever: I'd refused to give him my email password. I thought my mom would take my side, but I was so so wrong. Without hesitation, she told me to leave. But that wasn't the worst part. It was the dead of winter. I had no coat and ended up wandering around town by myself.

After spending the entire evening freezing, I had no choice but to sleep under the stairs of the building we lived in. Later that night, my father gave my mother permission to let me back in. Years later, I told them about this trauma, and once again, they let me down. They screamed at me called me a "stupid liar" while I bawled my eyes out.

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98. My Father And I

My father has extreme PTSD from being in Vietnam, with a history of being hurt physically and mentally, and I’m sure, several undiagnosed health issues on top of a CVS receipt worth of physical issues. He was heavily medicated for all of the above but there was no medication management going on, so he was a mess. In retrospect, I understand and feel terrible that he went through that.

Most of my childhood was hard with him after a certain point. He had been prescribed OxyContin for pain in his knees which he had just broken at work. This might have been the tipping point. He told me, “You’re probably not my son. I didn’t want you, you look nothing like me, and your mother would screw anything on two wheels.”

I wanted to take a paternity test, but he was terribly nasty about the whole thing. My mother explained that he had several serious conditions that were hereditary and that this was his twisted way of finding peace of mind. He didn't want my future to be defined by illness. But guess what? Turns out he is my dad and I have a future of disease to look forward to. But heck, this isn't even the worst of it.

Another time, he had a completely unprovoked meltdown while sitting in his truck with me in our driveway. He said, “I hate my life, I’m going to lock myself in my bedroom, and shoot myself in the head.” I stole his .45 and threw it into a quarry. In response, he said, “I hope someday you have a child that you hate as much as I hate you.” Does his tragic parenting end there? Nope. Not at all.

Upon finding out that he had an extremely rare blood condition, he said “I’m going to die soon, you need to learn to be a man and not deal with it the way you deal with everything else, like a fool.” I didn’t talk to him for years after this. When I was 16, I finally confronted him, and the unexpected happened...You could 100% see in his face that he was almost in disbelief.

He sat there sobbing. Mind you, this is my Vietnam vet dad, he’d fight with another karate dad in front of a crowd for making a snotty comment about me, flip the principal’s desk for suspending me over defending myself from bullies. He’s a scary man. And there he was—sobbing and begging for my forgiveness. After that, he went to a doctor, and they managed his medicine.

He was still a weirdo, but he never said anything harmful to me again.

Toxic parentsShutterstock

99. Kept Himself Out of Trouble

My girlfriend only had her mother since her father passed when she was young. I go to her house to wait for her to get home and meet her mom, and she has a bottle of Dewars on the table. Her mom was pleasant and not yet not intoxicated at the time, and she offered me a drink. I normally don't drink the hard stuff, but I decided to be polite and take it.

Her mother gets a phone call and apparently, my new girlfriend is going to be about two hours late. The mother then sits down next to me on the couch and strikes up a conversation with me. Then the unthinkable happens. Her mom, not very attractive by the way, puts her hand on my upper thigh. She says we have two hours if I'm interested and smiles.

Now at the time, I was only 18, but I had enough common sense to get the heck out of there really quickly. I met up with my girlfriend later that night and didn't even bring up what happened. I thought, “What good could it do, right?” Two days later, my girlfriend shows up at my house and is wide-eyed, and her breath is labored.

She tells me that one of her best friends just told her that he slept with her mom. I asked when it happened, and she said two nights ago. I made the right choice!

Bela Lugosi factsPixabay

100. They Never Really Got To Meet

I dated a girl for just a bit, with no plans at all to meet her parents at this point. We had just finished getting intimate for the first time when she got a call from her mom. Apparently, they had a little too much to drink and needed a sober ride home. She asked if I minded, and I didn't, so we headed to the bar to get them. They were kind enough to be outside waiting for us when we got there.

They were both leaning back on a railing above some concrete steps leading to an outside basement entrance. She waves at them and they wave back. Her dad lost his balance and went backward over the railing. Her mom looked over and just started wailing. I made my girlfriend stay in the car and call for help while I went to see what happened. It was more chilling than I could have ever imagined. 

He landed just right on the corner of one of the stairs and split his skull wide open. He had passed before I ever said a word to him. That relationship didn't last very long.

Meet The Parents FactsShutterstock

101. What’s In A Name?

I was the youngest and only child in my family to attend college. While in college, I was kicked out at the age of 20. My dad got furious over his burned dinner, and then later, instead of knocking on my door to open my window, he barged in and opened it himself. I protested and he overreacted and said, "his house his rules."

I told him that you don't just do stuff like that because I could have been naked or any number of things. It had nothing to do with the rules of the house; it was more about walking in on something awkward. He didn't take it well and kicked me out for talking back. Didn't talk to them for seven years after that. Eventually, though, they came back into my life.

My oldest brother only had girls, and I ended up having three boys. For each one of them, I was asked by both if I'd name one of them after my dad. I would inform them no and they would get increasingly agitated. Eventually, I just decided to be truthful and hit them back with a brutal response: "If you wanted me to name any children after you, you should have actually raised me better."

I haven't talked to them for three months now and it doesn't look like I will be for the foreseeable future after another incident. They used my credit card for $7,000 after kicking me out. I've spent my entire life fending off their manipulative antics. The nail in the coffin? My mother told me she had a life-altering disease that she did not actually have.

Toxic parentsPexels

Sources: Reddit, , , , , , , , , , , , ,


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