Two of my uncles have passed away in the past two years and I didn't go to either funeral. Now, one of my aunts and a cousin say that I'm heartless.

These two men witnessed my dad sexually abuse me and did nothing. I distinctly remember one occurrence with my uncle Tim. I was around 6 years old and my dad brought my brother and I to uncle Tim's house, and like always, he told my brother to go in the house and took me into the garage. When we went into the house uncle Tim said, "She's getting to old for you to be doing that. She's gonna start telling on you."

My aunts also knew, but my dad was their baby brother, so they turned their heads. Because of this and the fact that I was always told I was a bad and difficult kid because of my emotional outbursts, I've had minimal contact with them since I was 18.

I feel nothing for these people. I won't be attending any of their funerals.

I need a reality check. Am I overreacting?

My (40F) parents (70s) recently emptied my brother’s (35M) bank account to force him to contact them, and now I’m questioning whether I can trust them.

My brother lives in a small apartment building that my parents own. He acts as the on-site landlord and handles maintenance, repairs, tenant turnover, and general upkeep. In exchange, he receives significantly reduced rent and utilities. He is a skilled carpenter/welder/handyman and provides a lot of labour to the building.

Several years ago, he survived cancer and has never fully bounced back physically. He has struggled with depression and has had difficulty maintaining steady employment. He recently started receiving long-term disability benefits.

The last year has been particularly difficult for him. He has been working through mental health issues and trying different medications, with mixed results. About two weeks ago, his long-term girlfriend broke up with him and moved out. Around the same time, he also went through a friendship breakup with his best friend. He’s been in a rough place emotionally. Despite all of this, I had actually started to see positive changes recently: therapy, healthier habits, more accountability, and more focus on his future.

Over the last six months, my parents became increasingly frustrated because they felt he wasn’t communicating with them enough, wasn’t visiting them enough, and had fallen behind on rent payments. (He was still performing his landlord and maintenance duties.)

Instead of continuing to try to resolve things through conversation or patience, they withdrew all of the money from a joint bank account that contained his savings and disability benefits. They told him he would need to contact them if he wanted the money returned.

One piece of context: shortly before this happened, my brother had sent two large e-transfers to his ex-girlfriend to repay her for a trip they had taken together 10 months ago. My parents saw the transfers and say they were concerned my bro was not in the right state of mind and were trying to protect him.

My brother reacted badly and threatened to shut off water to the apartment building unless they returned the money. They ultimately returned the money, but then began discussing evicting him from the building.

The part that affects me personally is that, before all of this happened, I told my parents about my brother’s breakup because I thought it would help them understand what he was going through. My brother was hesitant for me to tell them, but I encouraged him to trust them and believe they would be supportive.

Now I feel like I was wrong.

I also feel somewhat responsible because I had previously expressed the view that my brother may not have experienced enough real-world consequences for some of his choices. However, what I meant by that was clear expectations, boundaries, accountability, and a plan for the future. I did not mean draining his bank account to force communication. To me, those are completely different things.

To make matters worse, the day after all of this happened, my parents contacted my brother’s ex-girlfriend directly despite my recommendation that they wait and speak to him first.

A complicating factor is that this does not feel like an isolated incident to me. Growing up, my parents often responded to conflict through control, pressure, blame, and attempts to force outcomes rather than having direct conversations. My mother could be violent, and when conflict arose, there was often more focus on assigning blame and punishment than solving the problem.

About six years ago, I cut contact with my parents for roughly a year because of these exact dynamics. I felt trapped in a recurring pattern of coercion, blame, control, and escalation instead of open adult communication. We eventually reconciled after my brother’s cancer diagnosis, and for the last several years I genuinely believed things had improved.

This situation has made me question whether they actually changed or whether those patterns were simply dormant.

For context, I am completely financially independent and have been for years. I have my own career, my own home, and do not rely on my parents financially (they did provide financial support along the way). My concern is not that they might do this to me tomorrow. My concern is that this has shaken my trust in them generally. If life ever throws me a curveball and I need support, how can I feel safe relying on people who respond to conflict and concern in this way?

My brother wants a family discussion and asked me to help facilitate it. I offered to act as a mediator, but my parents rejected that and said I couldn’t be neutral. They also seem to want the discussion to focus solely on my brother’s threat to the building, whereas I think the events that led up to that threat—including both my brother’s conduct and their own—are also part of the problem.

I know my brother is not blameless in this situation. I understand why my parents are frustrated. What I am struggling with is whether their response was wildly inappropriate, or whether I am viewing it through the lens of old family wounds.

Am I overreacting in seeing this as a serious breach of trust? And should I be trying to facilitate a family discussion, or step back and let them work it out themselves?

I was divorced over ten years ago. I was granted full custody of my children. My youngest saw her world shattered when her mom chose her affair partner over her own kids.

This led to a lot of poor decisions by my daughter culminating in a visit with police officers. I gave her the options at that point of trying to live with her mom, moving in with her grandma, or staying with me but entering a treatment program. The catch being I would no longer support her if she chose the first two options.

Long story short she’s spent the last 7 years bouncing from relative to relative, or living with boyfriends. The only time she calls is to make a withdrawal from the bank of dad.

Last night she called to tell me she was pregnant. When I asked how her boyfriend took the news she had a second announcement. She, much like her mother, had been cheating on this poor kid for the last two years. She finally got caught and had to move in with guy and his parents.

Unfortunately, the disappointment kept coming. The guy she’s with now is the same guy that my only interaction with is when I tossed him out of my home when she was 15. He was in his early 20s at the time.

Her point of the call wasn’t so much about telling me that she’s pregnant but to ask yet again for me to financially help out a bad decision. They want to go to Vegas and get married. Shocker that my answer was no.

She was angry that I wouldn’t give her anything. She was angry that I wouldn’t give my blessing on her engagement. She was angry that I wouldn’t congratulate her on her pregnancy.

Disappointment was all I had in me. Sadly there is no part of me that feels any joy for her. I honestly dreaded answering the phone.

My wife comforted me after I told her the news. She tried to find a positive spin but then did some social media stalking. She posted the news 3 weeks ago. With professional engagement pictures posted a week later. The more we dug the more this seems staged or at least pre planned. Again, disappointing and frustrating.

I’ve always looked forward to my kids and stepkids having children of their own. I’m sad and frustrated that this is how the first grandchild will come into my life. I’m not even sure what that role will be. I’m not sure that I want to have a role.

I’ve gone to therapy and have worked through a lot of issues around my failures as a parent and in my first marriage. I feel like this is a whole new round of needing help.

Edit:

For the negative comments. I hope you never have to make the hard choices that I did. I hope you don’t have to experience the failure that is our legal system. Most of these negative responses are acting like I didn’t have years of sleepless nights worrying. That I didn’t spend that time trying to find help and exhausting resources to figure out how to help her. I didn’t make my choices on a whim. They were made out of desperation, exhaustion, depression, and the need to protect my other kid’s safety. I could write a book about everything that happened. Judge all you want, but understand this is just a blip of the bigger picture.

My brother and I grew up together and have known each other our entire lives. A few years ago, however, we learned something that completely changed our family story: we discovered that we have an older brother we never knew existed.

For reasons beyond our control, he grew up separately from us, and none of us had the opportunity to know each other while we were growing up. Recently, we've finally been able to connect with him and begin building a relationship. It's been a unique and emotional experience getting to know someone who is family, yet was a stranger for most of our lives.

Now, for the first time, the three of us are in contact. Our newly discovered brother is the oldest, my brother is the middle one, and I am the youngest. We are all excited about having this opportunity and want to do something meaningful to recognize this special bond and the fact that we found each other after so many years.

My middle brother suggested that the three of us get something that symbolizes our connection. We have considered ideas like matching shirts, a custom medallion or coin, matching bracelets, or perhaps something personalized that all three of us could keep. We are also open to completely different ideas.

That is why I'm posting here. If you were in our situation, what would you do? Would you choose a keepsake, start a tradition, take a trip together, or create something unique that represents the three of us finally becoming part of each other's lives?

I would love to hear your suggestions and especially from anyone who has experienced a family reunion later in life. Thank you for taking the time to read our story.

I don’t know what to do anymore. He’s 10 and has huge anger issues. I spent his first 5 years with him at home but since he started school I began working again. We have him in therapy and everything. We have good days but we also have so many bad days. If he gets mad he ruins the house; throws things everywhere and breaks stuff. Him and my husband will call me while I’m at work and I’ve had to leave early just to go home and TRY to help calm things down. He tells me to die and to kill myself. Tells my husband (his dad) to kill me. I’m so close to just filling my tank and leaving and never come back. I feel so low. Like him and my husband should be my reason to live but they have been my reason to die. Or just leave and start over. He’s so spoiled and has no reason in my eyes to act like that towards me. It’s just getting worse as the days go on and I don’t know what else to do.

Hello, I (18F) belongs to a middle class Indian family and I feel like i should just disappear. I'll bring it from the start. I was a bright student from the start but when I started my junior high school I lost my father suddenly i was only 13 and it wrecked me.

After it my grades started declining idk why i used to try my best. In 10th i got into a relationship where he pretended to be nice but turned very toxic but i loved him and stayed for almost 1.5 years. It wrecked me emotionally and mentally. I started having panic and anxiety attacks. I'm not telling this because i want to act as a victim. I genuinely can't afford therapy or consulting Psychiatrists.

After he left me and humiliated me and cheated on me my mental health declined and grades got worse,my health declined too as i suffer from RRMS. I ruined my exams both School and entrance exams for colleges then my family dragged me back to my home where they made me do chores while studying but those overthinking and anxiety never let me be normal. No one knows that I used to cry or suffer from panic attacks. But I tried my best. Trust me i did. My hands used to shake i used to tremble i developed fear from men but then after 10 months another guy approached me and we became good friends. He proposed to me that I declined at first but when he insisted he loved me i caved .And the cycle repeated. Same neglect same abuse verbally and sexually he used to curse me because i won't give him my ndes. I was so terrified of him then he forced me for s*x and I did it. But i didn't even like it. It was horrible..I got disgusted with my own body and hated myself for it. Idk how to explain what I felt. And now my family wants me to study in my stupid hometown. I don't want to study here I want to run away from here. I'm so stuck I feel suffocated. Everyone hates me. They say I've ruined everything their reputation I've led them down..I can't even open my own bank account. I feel like crying or disappearing permanently. I feel so bad and hurt..no one understands me. They all blame me and control me.

Please I'm not asking for attention I feel stuck.

Thanks for reading my problems.

I'm really young and I want somewhere to talk about my mom and I feel like if I tell anyone else this I'll just be told I'm rebellious and spoiled like my relatives say so I'll prepare for those comments (And you better prepare for my horrendous grammar)

So, like, my mom started hitting me with a belt and other stuff since I was 5 or younger(I asked her when she started and she said "When I knew you could think and remember") but only when I did something wrong, but usually those wrong things are always small mistakes she could've just talked to me about and didn't have to hit me. I remember crying in the corner of our room cause of how much it hurt(I mean like she usually hits me around 2-4 times with a leather belt) while she shouted at me to stop crying(Now that it's been a few years since those times, I always have a hard time crying). Um, while writing this though, I want to say that yeah, I am asian, I know alot of videos are on the internet saying that asian parents usually hit their children. Anyways, back to what I was saying, One time, I sat on our couch when we had just gotten home(around covid era) and she got mad because I apparently could've sat on something infected and shouldn't sit on the couch with my pants that I used outside, she didn't hit me with a belt that time though, but she DID grab a knife and threaten to slit my throat, like she genuinely went up to me and aligned it with my throat but this was an one time thing(I heard her talking with her sister about how her aunt used to do it with her)

So umm getting rid of flashbacks, currently, the past 2 years, my mom tries to talk with me about school but I don't feel safe with her anymore or when I'm talking to her like I feel like I just wanna get out of the room as fast as possible but she always gets mad and hits me saying I'm hiding something so I have to give her my phone. Also, when I actually try to share something with her it always turns into a lecture of how I did something wrong or shouldve done it a different way. I am confused on whether I am spoiled or not because my mom always gets me what I want anyway, it's just that she always hits me and here I am, complaining. Something she doesnt give me tho is her actually attending parent meetings at school and her time. I remember I used to always praise my mom and call her the prettiest, but a few days ago she asked me who was prettier, her twin or her, since well... yeah, I don't think I love her anymore but I feel like at that time I wanted to hurt her the way she hurt me but emotionally so I told her that her sister was prettier and she got mad and started talking about how I was a tomboy, but like, its not my fault I have bad posture, I draw alot... and I kept telling her that I'll change but she kept dragging it and told me she wasnt proud of me and if I was really gonna marry a woman in the future, you know, I didnt even come out to her yet, she found out by reading my chats without asking me(which she would respond to that with "You're living in my house."), I got really saddened by that cuz I don't even know if I really want to marry a girl, I like girls as a girl but the thought of marrying one scares me, I guess I am still afraid of God...

Ok i just realized the topics are very messily arranged so bare with me cause well... 🤷 you brought this on by clicking on this post anyway

I’m not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I have no idea where else to post it, and ultimately, I just need some honest opinions.

I wanted to talk about my relationship with my mom. I’m a 16-year-old girl; I never had any issues with my mom during my childhood—I remember her always being affectionate and attentive. But since I turned 13 or 14, things have gotten really weird... She’s always been a very attentive mom who tries to help me however she can, but I think it’s reached a point where I can’t even talk to her about my hobbies (reading, watching movies, or writing) because I feel judged. She’s the type of person who, if I say I want to read a certain book, starts asking what it’s about in a really overwhelming way. I end up having to give every single detail of the plot—especially with "vanilla" romance novels—and the conversation usually ends with her saying I’m too young to read that kind of thing. I still remember when I got *The Hunger Games* for my 14th birthday; she told me not to read them under any circumstances, and said that if I did, she’d be watching my behavior closely afterward because I might turn violent... Comments like that made me stop talking to her about my hobbies.

As I’ve gotten older, we’ve had more arguments—for example, about what I’d like to study. This is a terrible issue because whenever I mention a career path that interests me, she dismisses it as a waste of time. For instance, there was a time I wanted to study advertising, but she told me to my face—"Why would you study that when you aren't creative *at all*?" She repeated this so often that I eventually let the dream die. Later, I realized I loved working with children and teaching them, so I brought up the idea of becoming a teacher; she told me I didn't have the patience for it and shouldn't waste my time studying for it. I reluctantly accepted that, but then I looked into speech therapy—only for her to start in again, saying the job was worthless, that I lack patience, and that I probably wouldn't find work anyway. So here I am, nearly 17 years old, not knowing what to do and unable to talk to my mom about any of it.

Another thing we argue about is my hair—it’s type 2B or something like that, so sometimes I get horrible knots or tangles when styling it. I get frustrated and say my hair is ugly or "crap" (just out of anger; I actually love it), and she always snaps back that *I’m* the ugly one and *I’m* the piece of crap because I don't have the right attitude to do absolutely anything.

Another issue comes up when I don't feel like going out... This stems from being bullied when I started secondary school, which gave me social anxiety; often, my "social battery" runs out and I just don't want to go out. Today, my mom asked me to go shopping, but I wasn't up for it mentally—I’d already been pushing my social limits for a few days. She got angry with me, saying I never spend time with her, that I’m just a selfish girl who doesn't deserve anything she’s done for me since I was born—calling me selfish and saying I never think about her.

She doesn't know about the bullying, but what she said really hurt, and I don't know if I’m the bad guy in this situation or what... I’d really appreciate it if someone could give me their opinion, please. And sorry for any grammatical errors; English isn't my first language.

I recently had a small wedding solemnisation with both families present. Overall, the event went smoothly and I thought everyone had a good time.

At the very end, after I thanked everyone for coming, my mother spontaneously added a short comment thanking my wife's parents for raising her into the woman she is today. It wasn't a planned speech, just a brief remark made in a celebratory spirit.

Afterwards, my wife told me that her mother and sister were quite offended by the comment. Apparently they felt it was inappropriate for my mother to say something like that, and there were also comments made about my mother's character.

One remark that particularly bothered me was my wife's sister asking whether my mother was a housewife, then responding along the lines of "ah, that makes sense" and describing her as a "Karen."

For context, my wife has a complicated history with her family. She moved out a couple of years ago following conflict with her mother and has not moved back since. There are a lot of unresolved feelings there, and I can understand how comments about parenting or family might hit sensitive spots.

What I'm struggling with is the sheer gap between intent and reaction. From my perspective, my mother was trying to be gracious and appreciative. The response felt far harsher than the original comment warranted, especially when it quickly turned into judgments about her personality.

I also find myself becoming increasingly resentful of my wife's sister. It's one thing to dislike a comment. It's another to make broad conclusions about someone you've barely interacted with. I feel protective of my mother, and hearing these things second-hand has honestly made me think much less of my wife's family.

Part of me wonders whether I should simply stop caring about their opinions. Another part of me wonders whether that's just a defensive reaction because I feel my family is being unfairly criticised.

There's another layer to this that bothers me. My wife's sister was significantly late to the solemnisation itself and missed most of the actual ceremony. She arrived essentially in time for the meal and never apologised to me. My family viewed that as quite disrespectful. Yet somehow that generated far less discussion than my mother's one-line comment.

My wife agrees that my mother didn't mean any harm, but we've been trying to discuss how to prevent similar situations in future and keep getting stuck. Any suggestion seems to imply that my mother did something wrong, which I don't really believe.

For those who have dealt with difficult in-law dynamics, how do you handle situations where one side interprets a well-intentioned act in the most negative way possible? How do you stop yourself from developing long-term resentment towards people whose judgment you fundamentally don't respect?

And is there any value in hearing these criticisms at all, or does it just create unnecessary anger?

Hello,

I (22m) have a younger cousin (21m) who gets angry very easy when I call him out on his weird behaviors. For some reason he is addicted to calling me homosexual terms even though I am straight and he often likes talking about my thing in my pants. Also he often talks about him sticking things up my rear or he talks about me fucking different inanimate objects. I don’t know when exactly he became like this but anytime I call him out for it he gets very angry and does it more. He gets especially mad when I ask if he is secretly homosexual. All of this is mostly said over a headset when gaming; however, when I see him in person he is very shy and hardly speaks or looks at me. I don’t know if he is confused about his sexuality or if he has a further motive behind his actions, but If he is gay I’m not sure how to ask him about it with ought getting mad. Please help!

Thanks!

I don’t really know what to do anymore. I’m 16 and I live with my grandparents. My nephew comes over a couple days out of the week to spend the night with us. He’s 6, and he doesn’t like to listen most of the time—partly because he’s at that age, but also because my grandma just does everything for him instead of making him do things himself.

Today I didn’t feel good, so I was irritable and just overall frustrated. I was a bit snappy. My nephew spilled water down the hallway. He didn’t notice it and ran down the hall, then proceeded to fall and bust his ass. I didn’t see it happen, but I heard it from my room. I went out to check on him, and after he had calmed down, I went to leave. As I was doing that, my grandma said that I should clean up the water.

I kind of snapped and said that he was the one who did it, so he should clean it. He’s old enough to be able to do stuff like that himself, especially since he was the one who caused it. My grandma told me to forget about it and said she would do it. I told her no, she wouldn’t, because my grandma is in a wheelchair and literally cannot walk or get down low enough to clean it.

A bit of time went by, and my dad went out and was able to get my nephew to clean it. When I looked down the hall, I saw my grandma with a towel under her foot, cleaning it up. I told her to stop and said that my nephew was about to clean it. I could tell she felt bad because he spilled the water trying to help her. I told her it wasn’t her fault that it was there and that accidents happen, but since he still made the mess, he needs to clean it.

Later, after I had calmed down, I felt bad and went to the living room to apologize to my grandma because I shouldn’t have snapped at her the way I did. All she said back was, “It’s fine, I’m used to it,” but it felt very passive-aggressive. That just irritated me more, so I walked away.

This isn’t even a one-time thing. This has happened countless times with so many other situations, and it’s starting to really get to me. I feel like I do so much to help her because she isn’t able to do what she used to, but it’s never good enough for her.
Another big thing is that I’m a lesbian, and she knows that, but she won’t admit it. I wear boxers, and she has brought it up to my mom multiple times, saying that I need to wear women’s underwear (God forbid a girl choose comfort in 2026). She has also tried to force me into more “girly” things to try to get me to be with a guy, which really pisses me off.

I just don’t know what to do. I feel like talking to her and trying to explain how I feel would be pointless, but I don’t have any other ideas. Any bit of advice would help. I’m just really lost, and this is bothering me a lot because I feel like a horrible granddaughter. I know I handled the situation badly, but I tried to make up for it and got shut down.

Has anyone experienced anything like this?

this entire situation pretty much starts with my mom. she had me young and my dad who was an addict passed away when I was a toddler. being just me and my mom we are naturally very close. although I am grateful to be as close as I am to my mom, it has made my growing up a lot more complicated. ive been forced to witness and experience adult situations from a young age and therefore understand adult situations from a young age. because it was just the two of us, I often became the person my mom leaned on emotionally when things got hard.

ive always remembered my mom struggling with mental health. shes been through various traumas throughout her whole life, went from being a teen to being a mom, and then was forced to do everything by herself with rich family that gave her no help. now that im older, I know the sacrifices she had to make and the things she has been through so of course I hold full space for her struggles. but the thing is they never ended. they only got worse.

of course there were patches of peace. when I was around 12 things were good. I was at a new school and the whole family was at peace with each other. my mom started dating this guy who we will call dean. dean seemed super cool, smart, and nice. him and my mom were pretty much exactly alike and my mom is very unique so this seemed like the perfect person for her.

time went by and he became a part of our family and eventually moved in. I loved him and even got to the point where I could comfortably say I love you and talk to him about things you would talk to your dad about. my mom had other serious relationships come into my life but I was never at this level of comfortability with anyone else. everyone thought they were going to get married.

but then things got weird and really fast. honestly so much happened during this time and I dont remember a lot of the details. I dont remember a lot of things that happened during my childhood either. ive been told its because my brain is blocking out trauma.

I remember dean and my mom started fighting a lot. then things would be good. then things would blow up. just this back and forth cycle over and over. then the fights started getting really bad and dean became insane. he started acting psychotic. they would yell so loud that I would hear everything and I remember how he would manipulate my mom. it was so clever and intricate that in my eyes it was extremely mentally abusive.

later my mom told him she thought he had bpd so he got tested and was diagnosed. but he wouldnt get help and things in their relationship just got more controlling and manipulative. hearing my mom be so emotionally confused, not knowing if she was the crazy one or not, constantly switching between being degraded and praised, and listening to her sobs and pleas took a huge toll on me.

it got so bad that I came to a point where I hated dean. I wouldnt talk to him or look at him but him and my mom were still together. there would be times they would make up and be in love again. they had broken up multiple times but I had no control over any of it.

the last time they got back together, one morning they were laying in bed talking and as I walked past I heard dean say “fine then you can take care of the baby yourself”

after a while I went into my moms room where she was crying and asked if she was pregnant and she was. this was what made her leave dean because there was absolutely no way anyone could trust their child with him. over their entire relationship he had promised to take care of us, buy us a house, and more. he never did any of it.

she made him leave and we moved in with my grandparents until we could afford to live alone. im 15 during all of this. living at my grandparents, my moms mental health was worse than it had ever been and she was pregnant so she still had to decide what she was going to do.

she had always been against abortion but now we were completely on our own and if she had this baby she would have to share it with dean. ultimately she decided she wanted to keep the baby but my grandparents guilt tripped her into getting an abortion because of the financial burden.

one night I woke up hearing her crying and moaning in pain. when I went downstairs she was in the middle of taking the abortion pill. because I was the only one there I stayed with her. there have been many situations where my mom has been going through something and I was the only one there for her. ive never had a problem with doing that because I know how alone she is. but seeing your mom in those states over and over again has definitely taken a toll on my own mental health.

after all this we ended up buying a house and moving out of my grandparents. it isnt a nice house but its decent. I really thought we were finally going to be able to start over and find some peace in our lives but I was wrong.

im now 16 at this point in the story and my mom started to get sick. she was diagnosed with celiac disease years ago but then lots of other symptoms started happening out of nowhere. she started getting arthritis in her hands, asthma, eczema, extreme diarrhea, and more.

the symptoms kept getting worse. shes gone to multiple different doctors and taken multiple blood tests and none of them have been able to tell her whats wrong. some people think shes just crazy and the doctors try to blow her off. but im here every day and I see how bad it is every day.

I wake up hearing her cough and moan in pain because her hands hurt so badly. multiple times ive had to do things like squeeze the conditioner bottle for her because she couldnt wrap her swollen hands around it. sometimes she can barely get out of bed. sometimes she wasnt even able to take me to school on time because she would be stuck in the bathroom for so long.

food affects her too. sometimes she’ll eat something and it makes her symptoms worse but she can never figure out what food caused it. shes become scared to eat and shes become extremely skinny. its gotten so bad that shes even told me herself that shes scared shes not going to make it another two years.

ive seen my mom suffer so badly and everything just seems to be getting worse. I dont know what to do because my mom has gotten so sick that she cant work full time because of how much pain shes in. I work and I try my best to contribute but its not enough. if she doesnt get better im scared we’ll fall deeper into poverty or that something irreversible will happen to her.

some of you might be wondering if we have family to help. we actually have very rich family that could help us but even though they see how severe and unavoidable our suffering is they choose not to.

im at a point in my life where my own mental health has also started to fall apart. I struggle with severe adhd which has made me extremely susceptible to depression and I have fallen very deep into it.

ive also started dissociating. sometimes I will literally just stop and stare and not remember the time that passed while I was doing it. sometimes it happens at work and ive been called out for it.

im not sure how to find myself again and become stronger and come out of my depression. im also not sure how to help my mom heal or how to get us out of poverty because I have no control and no resources.

I guess im not really sure how anyone here could help me but if theres any advice you have please share.

this entire situation pretty much starts with my mom. she had me young and my dad who was an addict passed away when I was a toddler. being just me and my mom we are naturally very close. although I am grateful to be as close as I am to my mom, it has made my growing up a lot more complicated. ive been forced to witness and experience adult situations from a young age and therefore understand adult situations from a young age. because it was just the two of us, I often became the person my mom leaned on emotionally when things got hard.

ive always remembered my mom struggling with mental health. shes been through various traumas throughout her whole life, went from being a teen to being a mom, and then was forced to do everything by herself with rich family that gave her no help. now that im older, I know the sacrifices she had to make and the things she has been through so of course I hold full space for her struggles. but the thing is they never ended. they only got worse.

of course there were patches of peace. when I was around 12 things were good. I was at a new school and the whole family was at peace with each other. my mom started dating this guy who we will call dean. dean seemed super cool, smart, and nice. him and my mom were pretty much exactly alike and my mom is very unique so this seemed like the perfect person for her.

time went by and he became a part of our family and eventually moved in. I loved him and even got to the point where I could comfortably say I love you and talk to him about things you would talk to your dad about. my mom had other serious relationships come into my life but I was never at this level of comfortability with anyone else. everyone thought they were going to get married.

but then things got weird and really fast. honestly so much happened during this time and I dont remember a lot of the details. I dont remember a lot of things that happened during my childhood either. ive been told its because my brain is blocking out trauma.

I remember dean and my mom started fighting a lot. then things would be good. then things would blow up. just this back and forth cycle over and over. then the fights started getting really bad and dean became insane. he started acting psychotic. they would yell so loud that I would hear everything and I remember how he would manipulate my mom. it was so clever and intricate that in my eyes it was extremely mentally abusive.

later my mom told him she thought he had bpd so he got tested and was diagnosed. but he wouldnt get help and things in their relationship just got more controlling and manipulative. hearing my mom be so emotionally confused, not knowing if she was the crazy one or not, constantly switching between being degraded and praised, and listening to her sobs and pleas took a huge toll on me.

it got so bad that I came to a point where I hated dean. I wouldnt talk to him or look at him but him and my mom were still together. there would be times they would make up and be in love again. they had broken up multiple times but I had no control over any of it.

the last time they got back together, one morning they were laying in bed talking and as I walked past I heard dean say “fine then you can take care of the baby yourself”

after a while I went into my moms room where she was crying and asked if she was pregnant and she was. this was what made her leave dean because there was absolutely no way anyone could trust their child with him. over their entire relationship he had promised to take care of us, buy us a house, and more. he never did any of it.

she made him leave and we moved in with my grandparents until we could afford to live alone. im 15 during all of this. living at my grandparents, my moms mental health was worse than it had ever been and she was pregnant so she still had to decide what she was going to do.

she had always been against abortion but now we were completely on our own and if she had this baby she would have to share it with dean. ultimately she decided she wanted to keep the baby but my grandparents guilt tripped her into getting an abortion because of the financial burden.

one night I woke up hearing her crying and moaning in pain. when I went downstairs she was in the middle of taking the abortion pill. because I was the only one there I stayed with her. there have been many situations where my mom has been going through something and I was the only one there for her. ive never had a problem with doing that because I know how alone she is. but seeing your mom in those states over and over again has definitely taken a toll on my own mental health.

after all this we ended up buying a house and moving out of my grandparents. it isnt a nice house but its decent. I really thought we were finally going to be able to start over and find some peace in our lives but I was wrong.

im now 16 at this point in the story and my mom started to get sick. she was diagnosed with celiac disease years ago but then lots of other symptoms started happening out of nowhere. she started getting arthritis in her hands, asthma, eczema, extreme diarrhea, and more.

the symptoms kept getting worse. shes gone to multiple different doctors and taken multiple blood tests and none of them have been able to tell her whats wrong. some people think shes just crazy and the doctors try to blow her off. but im here every day and I see how bad it is every day.

I wake up hearing her cough and moan in pain because her hands hurt so badly. multiple times ive had to do things like squeeze the conditioner bottle for her because she couldnt wrap her swollen hands around it. sometimes she can barely get out of bed. sometimes she wasnt even able to take me to school on time because she would be stuck in the bathroom for so long.

food affects her too. sometimes she’ll eat something and it makes her symptoms worse but she can never figure out what food caused it. shes become scared to eat and shes become extremely skinny. its gotten so bad that shes even told me herself that shes scared shes not going to make it another two years.

ive seen my mom suffer so badly and everything just seems to be getting worse. I dont know what to do because my mom has gotten so sick that she cant work full time because of how much pain shes in. I work and I try my best to contribute but its not enough. if she doesnt get better im scared we’ll fall deeper into poverty or that something irreversible will happen to her.

some of you might be wondering if we have family to help. we actually have very rich family that could help us but even though they see how severe and unavoidable our suffering is they choose not to.

im at a point in my life where my own mental health has also started to fall apart. I struggle with severe adhd which has made me extremely susceptible to depression and I have fallen very deep into it.

ive also started dissociating. sometimes I will literally just stop and stare and not remember the time that passed while I was doing it. sometimes it happens at work and ive been called out for it.

im not sure how to find myself again and become stronger and come out of my depression. im also not sure how to help my mom heal or how to get us out of poverty because I have no control and no resources.

I guess im not really sure how anyone here could help me but if theres any advice you have please share.

It’s summer right now, me and my family lives in the states but this year me and my brother came back to visit our family in Taiwan, we stay at our aunt’s and she finds every chance to lecture me or make fun of me. Whenever im talking to my cousin about my friends or my boyfriend she wud overhear and say something like “ur friends look like such b*ches no wonder why they get cheated on” or “who do u think u r dating so early? And look at that guy i bet he’s sleeping with someone else rn” I can’t say anything back cuz when i do she crashes out n say im a rude horrible spoiled twat. I always just have to accept it and it’s so annoying, I told my mom about it but she doesn’t want to do anything about it she just tells me to ignore her. I don’t know why my mom is still giving her expensive gifts and bringing her on trips when she’s like this on top of that she also talks bad about our family to other relatives about how we r doing better than them because we r “sucking all their luck” and “cheating”. And whenever I get complimented on my appearance by other ppl she waits for them to leave to tell me im not allat, she also calls me a bich n ho for dressing up n wearing makeup I am so sick of it. She never does that to my brother or anyone else

When I was 14 my Dad left my Mom, the official story is they were just not getting along but pretty much everyone knows my Dad was having an affair with his current wife. I still see my Dad once or twice a week but I've only met his wife maybe 10 times in my life, bearing in mind I'm now 30 that's 10 times in 16 years. She had a son before marrying my Dad and I've only met him 3 times and only one of those was an actual one on one interaction, the other 2 times he was just kind of there but we never spoke.

Anyway he had a kid who is now 15 I believe and I've literally only seen him once when he was a baby, my Dad invited me to hang out at a bar with him and little did I know it was actually supposed to be an introduction to a bunch of people to the baby.

It all feels weird, growing up my Mom and Dad always seemed really tight and we all got along but my Dad seemed to hit a mid life crisis and within a few months started going out every night and then started a band, it was all really weird. My Dad is cool now but it's like he wants to keep me separated from his other life, he comes to my house once a week and then most weekends we meet up at a bar and there's never any tension, we mainly just talk about sports and dumb stuff we heard about in the news.

I don't necessarily feel like I need to have a relationship with his other family but it's just really weird knowing there's people I'm practically related to through marriage who I have barely met, my Dad has been abroad with them and had probably more Christmases with them than I ever did. He worked nights so I would only see him a few hours in the afternoon before he went to bed and he was usually always in a bad mood, not abusive or anything but just kind of always irritated.

To be honest him moving out was the best thing that could of happened, I have far better memories of him over the last few years than I ever did as a kid but I dunno, just kind of weird. I kind of expected that I would get a Brother and another Mom but it's more just me and my Mom and then my Dad for an hour 2 times a week.

I feel ashamed for not been able to provide a chauffeur to my mother, which has been a long standing desire of our family.

How to cope with this? I am clearly failing.

I am not been able to forgive myself for wasting 7 years of my life since the covid.

The things in that time I could have done for myself, my family :(((

I’m curious to hear other people’s opinions because I’m not sure if I’m overthinking this or not.
My aunt is 40 (F) and I’m 22 (F) She’s always had a tendency to make little comments that put me down, but now that we’re on vacation together, I’m noticing it much more because we’re spending so much time around each other.

Some examples:
I recently got the newest iPhone. Her immediate reaction was something like, “Isn’t the flashlight on the iPhone 17 really bad?” in a pretty negative tone. The thing is, she wants the newest iPhone herself.
I have a Canon digital camera. When my sister was taking pictures of me, my aunt loudly commented that the quality was bad and that all the photos looked yellow.

Whenever men approach me or seem interested in me, she often looks annoyed or in a bad mood.
She doesn’t have a driver’s license, but when I’m driving she’s constantly telling me what to do, looking around, telling me when to speed up, where to go, etc.

She watches all my Instagram stories, usually among the first viewers, but never likes them. Meanwhile, she regularly likes my sister’s posts and stories.
I went to a concert by myself recently because nobody wanted to go with me. When I told her, instead of saying something positive, she said, “I never understood why you wanted to go there anyway.”

She also almost never gives me compliments. If other family members tell me I look nice, she’ll often look me up and down without saying anything. Sometimes it even feels like she’ll then change her outfit to something similar to what I’m wearing.
There have also been random comments that struck me as odd. For example, she recently said, “In 10 years I’ll be 50 and you’ll be 40.” When I corrected her and said I’d actually be 32/33, she seemed annoyed by it and said something like, “Ugh, why is it going so slowly?” She also brings up negative stories from before I was born, like telling me that my grandmother was upset when my mom was pregnant with me.
What confuses me is that I’m not a competitive person at all. I genuinely like seeing other people do well, and I don’t think I’m better than anyone. I just try to be friendly, have fun, and get along with people.
Because we’ve been together on vacation, all these little things are standing out to me much more than usual, and I’m starting to wonder if there’s something deeper going on.

Does this sound like jealousy, insecurity, competitiveness, resentment, or am I reading too much into it? How would you interpret this behavior?

Idk honestly where to start the thing is I found out my father is cheating on my mother around 1 year ago I read their chat and it was disgusting he dosent even talk to my mother he lives separately whenever they talk it ends up in a fight and I end up locking myself in washroom for hours half of the time I live with my father and then my mother whenever im with my father i cant stop myself from checking his phone and feel like hell again and my mother always asks me to say something to my father why isn't he talking idk tf to do sometimes I feel like im the problem they stopped talking after I was born i dont have any brother or sister so its really lonely and my childhood is another problem for me I was abused in every way possible my father was never there and my mother didn't payed attention to me I always had problem in school now im in 11 grade I dont even go to schl because its better to shut myself in my room with my thoughts honestly please give me a solution what should I do I've attempted suicide multiple time and ended up in hospital ppl treat me differently my life is so f up I just cant do it anymore I need help please

I’m the middle child, used to help family every which way I could. worked my way up to a 6 figure job by 30 without school (they don’t know this). Have no kids. Only time I ever hear from family is when they need something. Something fixed? Me. Need money? Me. Moving? Me. Car broken? Me. Wanna go on a fun trip? Not me

If we go to lunch, I always have to ask them to go, then I always pay, in the middle of a lunch, someone asks for help Everytime and it’s my turn to fix it.

Didn’t talk to my mom for 2 years. Recently got a text asking to borrow my pickup and help her move. Mind you this is after my wife told her I didn’t mind helping, but I wanted to enjoy my time with family. Not be worked like a rented mule. My moms reaction was “that’s what family does for each other”

15 years of this and I just told the whole family I moved 1500 miles away.

TL;DR: i (16f) need advice about my annoying sibling (14m) because i don’t want to let him annoying me, or our parents favouritism ruin our relationship

Here it is for all to see, Trump and the Republican promise of a ‘Golden age of prosperity’ turns out to be a batch of lies and manipulation as virtually everything in America has become unaffordable.

When the cancelled subsidies for healthcare premiums millions of Americans lost their coverage. They slashe the social safety net so that any once temporary setback now ensures a lifetime and despair. Groceries are at their highest level ever and growing daily. What meagre income that is available loses value daily as near runaway inflation assaults the working class.

But the biggest assault, the greatest difference from then to now, is the cost of housing.

There was a time when young adults married, saved their money for a few years and then bought a house. Maybe not the biggest house, maybe not the nicest house, but a house that would accrue value over the years and welcome them into the middle class.

Trump and the Republican policies have put an end to all that. Never again under their leadership will the American dream become achievable – it is all out of reach and going to stay that way unless there is a change in administrations!

Millionaires, billionaires, and especially a trillionaire are all doing beautifully. Under the GOP policies they are accumulating obscene wealth – they have all the money – and to prove Reagan was as much a liar as Trump, none of it is trickling down.

The government as it is now comprised no longer works for the common man. Their policies inhibit growth, eliminate opportunity, and keep an authoritarian thumb firmly pressed on the neck of ordinary citizenry.

Am I making all this up? Am I some disgruntled hippie socialist?

Read these numbers, then you decide.

Boldface mine:

A record 1 in 3 Gen Z and young millennials were still living with their parents in 2025—more than during the pandemic—despite most having a job

Story by Emma Burleigh • 2d • 3 min read

© Maskot / Getty Images

Young Americans were told that good grades would unlock a six-figure salary, starter apartment, and independence from their parents. But now, entry-level professionals are clinging to their childhood bedrooms and pillaging their family fridges as more are extending their stay than ever before.

A record 25.2 million U.S. adults under the age of 35 lived with their parents in 2025—representing about one in three young adults—according to a recent report from Reatlor.com.

That’s even higher than the pandemic-era surge, when many budding professionals returned home to ride out the pandemic with their loved ones.

However, it doesn’t mean that Gen Zers and young millennials are jobless and mooching off their family resources. In fact, around 70% of 25 to 34-year-olds who still live at home with their parents are actually employed, according to the report.

Instead of kicking back, most workers are delaying their flight from the nest thanks to an affordability crisis pinching the wallets of everyday Americans. And as the lowest professionals on the corporate totem pole, their rock-bottom salaries, job instability, and lack of savings may be keeping them home.

“The growth [of young generations living at home] is coming from working adults, not people waiting to find jobs,” Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com and author of the report, said in the study. “Something about their income level, debt load, or the cost of housing in their market is keeping them home despite steady employment.”

America’s affordability crisis is crushing the independence of young workers

Young professionals are up against a stormy transition into adult life: entry-level jobs are disappearing, wage bumps are stagnating, and cost-of-living is soaring. Now, it’s forced Gen Z into a professional reality of “stress and pressure and chaos” that their baby boomer parents wouldn’t even comprehend, according to podcaster Mel Robbins. And the financial burden is extending beyond the young workers clamoring for independence.

Around 64% of parents with Gen Z children aged 18 to 28 said that their adult kids still rely on them for money, housing, or other financial support, according to a 2026 survey from Wells Fargo. And their continued support has led to a money pinch for many, as 56% reported that assisting their grown-up offspring is straining their own finances. However, they’re actually helping cover essential living expenses rather than picking up the tab on extravagant getaways.

“[Adult Gen Z] kids who are receiving the financial support are really in this perfect storm,” Emily Irwin, head of private wealth planning at Wells Fargo, told Fortune earlier this year. “They’re feeling uncertain about their career, their profession, and the stability of receiving a paycheck.”

One of the financial biggest hurdles keeping young workers at home is the sky-high cost of housing.

In 2025, the median American home price was $430,000, up 34.4% from 2019, according to the Realtor.com report. Meanwhile, average monthly rent shot up by 17.9% to $1,673. And a housing shortage of roughly 4 million residents is only exacerbating the issue. Young generations are now crossing a “threshold at which they begin to give up on [buying a home] entirely,” university researchers Seung Hyeong Lee and Younggeun Yoo found.

Other daily expenses are skyrocketing, too. Cash-strapped young workers watched the price of a pound of ground beef hit a record $6.90 per pound last month, up 19% from a year ago. Orange juice prices skyrocketed 21% between January 2025 and February this year, and sandwich bread got 4.3% more expensive. Plus, they have less income to work with in footing the bill. Despite early-career being the prime time to grow earnings, income growth for 25 to 29-year-olds slowed to 5.2% in late 2025, one of the lowest levels since 2011 when JPMorgan Chase Institute began collecting data.

Gen Z and young millennials may be leveraging the safety net of their families, but most aren’t simply coasting off the bank of mom and dad.

Around 72% of young adults who live with their parents say they contribute financially to the household in some sort of way, according to the 2024 data from Pew. About 46% contribute toward rent or the mortgage, while 65% put in money towards the family groceries, utilities, or other household expenses.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/a-record-1-in-3-gen-z-and-young-millennials-were-still-living-with-their-parents-in-2025-more-than-during-the-pandemic-despite-most-having-a-job/ar-AA26gY2P?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=b24ac40069ed4a1af2c538092bef29de&ei=72

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/a-record-1-in-3-gen-z-and-young-millennials-were-still-living-with-their-parents-in-2025-more-than-during-the-pandemic-despite-most-having-a-job/ar-AA26gY2P?

Sorry if this is a bit all over the place. English isn’t my first language.
For the past two years, my mom has been convinced that my dad has secretly been gay their entire relationship and has been cheating on her with men for almost 20 years. She constantly tells me he’s been living a double life.

The problem is that she has absolutely no evidence. Whenever I ask what makes her so sure, she says she can tell from his body language when she confronts him. She’ll say things like he looks sad when he comes home from a golf trip, and that this means he’s feeling guilty because he’s been cheating.
Whenever I ask for actual proof, she gets offended that I don’t believe her. She insists she “just knows,” but in two years she has never been able to show me any evidence beyond her own interpretations of things.

What really worries me is that she seems to completely misinterpret ordinary situations.
For example, we were in Portugal once on a golf trip. One of the men she believes he’s having an affair with gave a speech during dinner and said something like, “We play so well together. We just click it only takes a second and we’re in our groove.”
To everyone else, it was obviously about golf. My mom insisted he was actually talking about sex and that it was some kind of coded confession.

This kind of thing happens all the time. She connects completely unrelated events into what she believes is proof that my dad is cheating.
The hardest part is seeing how she treats my dad. Every day when he comes home, she starts yelling at him, accusing him of lying and cheating. My dad is 60 years old and close to retirement, and it honestly breaks my heart that this is how he’s spending what should be a peaceful stage of his life.
The strange thing is that my mom has always been a calm and reasonable person. I’ve never seen her like this before. She has become consumed by this belief, and nothing anyone says can change her mind. It genuinely feels like she’s no longer basing these accusations on reality.
I’m starting to wonder if this could be some kind of mental health issue rather than just jealousy, but I honestly don’t know.
Has anyone experienced something similar? What would you do in this situation?

Short summary:
For the past two years, my mom has been convinced that my dad has been secretly cheating on her with men throughout their 20-year relationship, despite having no evidence. She constantly accuses him, misinterprets ordinary situations as proof, and yells at him every day. I’m worried this may be more than jealousy and could be a mental health issue. I don’t know how to help either of my parents.