I think that we all have that moment in our childhood when we realize for the first time that our parents are human beings who are fallible, and not these perfect beings who can never be wrong.
For some of us, there’s also a moment when we lose a little bit of respect for our parents, and I think this one is a little bit worse – because of course our parents aren’t perfect, but we still hope they’re the kind of humans we can respect.
These 17 people are recalling those moments for us, so scroll at your own risk.
17. Feelings are for everyone.
“You dont have the right to be mad!”
Short, but very, very infuriating. You made me, but I didn’t ask to be born; You are not entitled to my obedience. Earn it!
16. Not helpful at all.
I had called the suicide hotline and since I’m a minor, the woman I spoke to had to call a parent or guardian. I had talked about how my stepmom was the only person I could tell things to so the woman called her.
My mother found out and then later screamed at me for it not being her.
15. Fairytales aren’t real.
My mom believes that if you just believe hard enough, you always get what you want.
I challenged her as to why we haven’t won the lottery. She said because she let past experiences influence her thinking as well as evidence. She then said, “I try not to let evidence influence my beliefs. I know I’m not supposed to…”
Yeah. An anti-evidence stance. :/
14. More than a little respect, I would think.
When my father came home from a tour in Korea he brought with him a new wife. We had never met her nor heard of her until he said he was coming home. We all moved together to his next posting. Three months later, wifeypoo gave him an ultimatum. “Either the kids go or I go.” He called up our mother (I have a sibling) and told her he was sending us to her. He then called us to the phone to “talk to your mom”.
I had no memory of her. In fact a prior step parent told us she was dead. I believed her. So he sent us to meet this stranger with the intention of giving custody to her under the guise of vacation without him. Our belongings followed. He gave us back to woman he divorced and believed was a danger to us just 11 years prior.
I lost s little respect for him for placing his new wife (she left him once she got a green card) over his children.
13. I would have, too.
I told my mom I was suicidal and needed help when I was 15. She went on a rant about her awful childhood and how I couldn’t possibly have it worse than her and SHE didn’t need therapy.
Then she lectured me for two hours. What she said that sticks with me most was “Where did you go wrong? Your sisters turned out fine.”
That’s the last day I trusted or respected my mom.
12. This infuriates me.
My mom still talks to her exboyfriend who touched me and followed me to work when he was drugged out.
Honestly I still dont understand it. If you’re willing to risk your child’s ability to even form future relationships so you can stay with a man you already know is a piece of s*%t, there is a special place in hell for you.
11. Why would someone say this?
When I was 13-19 years old I struggled with depression, and I was finally taken to a psychologist when I was 17 and was diagnosed with a form of depression. About a week before my 20th birthday I was joking with my dad that I never really had a teenage rebellion, and my dad starts joking about how we’re gonna need to go get me some cigarettes and alcohol so I can rebel real quick.
My mom overheard us and goes, ‘What do you mean you didn’t have a rebellion? What about all that crying, you used to never stop!’
…..That was depression and suicidal thoughts, do you really think that I made it all up just to rebel against you??
10. Tit for tat.
They expect me to reason with them, but they refuse to reason with me.
My mother will look at her phone when I’m talking to her, but heaven forbid I have my phone out at the dining table.
9. The face I am making right now.
When I talk to my mother about my troubles, she mostly just replies with “Once you find a boyfriend everything will get better”…
8. That’s when you ask Alexa.
When I realized that if my Mom doesn’t know the answer to a question, she just makes it up & pretends it’s facts.
7. Not a support.
About two years ago, I struggled heavily from depression. My mom is one of those people who doesn’t really understand the depth of mental illnesses, and on top of it, she was verbally abusive and always made cutting remarks about my academics, appearance, anything to degrade my self worth.
She broke me down to a point where I said I didn’t want to live anymore and wanted to kill myself. She told me to do it. I ended up in foster care for about a week because my friends called because they knew I wasn’t safe with her, and she is a manipulator and finessed the system to get me back quickly, and made it sound like she did nothing wrong.
I finally got therapy, but it wasn’t family, just me since she felt she did nothing wrong. She is treating me better and learning to respect my boundaries, but I will never forget my own mother scoffing, telling me to kill myself. I will never be able to respect her after that.
6. A punch to the gut.
Right after I graduated high school, I got my first car and was on my mom’s car insurance policy.
After a year I had been a very good driver and I wanted to call my insurance company to see if I could lower my rates. Turned out my mom kept the policy active for 1 month so I had an insurance card to put in my glovebox, but then cancelled the policy and pocketed the money for herself.
As much as the monetary aspect hurts, it’s crazy to think that my own mom would let me drive my car having me believe I was covered. I could have destroyed my life if I made some horrific mistake.
5. This should never happen.
My dad when he hit me and gave me stitches.
My mom when she hit me. No stitches from Mom, but that was somehow worse.
4. A laundry list.
My mom:
-compared me to friends constantly but would also use my grades or achievements as a way to compete with my aunt
-fakes illnesses when she wants attention or to guilt my siblings and I. She’s lied about having cancer, strokes, etc. When we figured out she was lying and stopped going to the hospitals, she calls family members and cries that we won’t help her/how she’s basically terminal/how we don’t Care
-has basically scammed my sisters, elderly grandma and I out of thousands and thousands of dollars. Just found out about 6 months ago, that she had gotten a pretty sizeable settlement from when I got hit by a car 20 years ago. She denied it and when i showed her proof, she threw my late father under the bus (he was a recovering addict) and claimed he was in charge of all that
-she was a nurse and when I attempted suicide, she didn’t want to get me professional help because it would look bad on her and my problems “aren’t everybody’s business”… so she just medicated the shit out of me for a bit.
Believe it or not, there’s more.
3. I would not be ok.
After I moved out my mom had my cat put to sleep because she couldnt bare the thought of him getting hurt outside. He kept getting out and coming back later.
She has some issues but that really hurt me for awhile.
2. Not the mother of the year.
My mother did the first two as well.
She also liked to start fights between my sisters and I by lying to us about what the others said.
We were also heavily criticized. I was the skinny one, so she always called me fat. My oldest sister has great hair, so she always told my sister how horrible it was. My other sister was athletic, my mom never went to her sports and told her she wasn’t any good.
I never understood how mothers could behave like this. Thankfully, our dad supported us and has always been there for us.
1. A terrible decision.
I was away at college and wasn’t able to take my cat with me, so I had my mom keep him until I found an apartment that allowed cats. She hates male cats and thinks they’re complicated to take care of, and he had an issue with using the bathroom outside of the litter as a means of stress or something.
I get a text one day right after taking my midterm before spring break telling me she took him to the shelter. My previous cat had to be put down because he had feline leukemia (conveniently happening while I was away at college), so it was especially difficult. I didn’t get to say goodbye to either of them. I miss them both so much.
Ugh, as a parent I hate some of these stories.
If you’ve got a similar story, share it with us in the comments!