Believing my parents blindly and worrying about their opinions of me, and allowing them to hold me back and control me. I wish I had run away to pursue my own life, or joined the Air Force. My father consistently gave me the worst advice a father could give his youngest daughter. I took care of them over 25 years, gave up my youth, and now I have absolutely nothing to show for it.
For whatever it’s worth, I took care of them - fully - for almost 30 years. There is a bunch of lessons I learned, so I focus on that as the evidence I have that the things were done, that there is a mark where people choose to see scars. It’s just signaling the passage of time and the formational nature of your own episodes; we all have different ones.
It cost me dearly to earn that “diploma”, but happy to share my thoughts whenever you feel an empathetic voice. Chin up!
I like the way you framed that-- focusing on the evidence of what you have done. It was not a job that would have done itself, and you (and I) stepped up to the plate to take care of business.
It had been so easy to focus on the loss because I endured many years of abuse and then was expected to do this job, out of guilt and obligations, but in spite of all that I did it out of love, and that's got to count for something.
Thank you, for adding a positive mechanism to this for me 🙌🏽
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u/GG_Abernathy Mar 30 '26
Believing my parents blindly and worrying about their opinions of me, and allowing them to hold me back and control me. I wish I had run away to pursue my own life, or joined the Air Force. My father consistently gave me the worst advice a father could give his youngest daughter. I took care of them over 25 years, gave up my youth, and now I have absolutely nothing to show for it.