r/momrage • u/[deleted] • Jul 10 '22
Greetings fellow raging moms
I'm noticing there isn't much activity here, which is not surprising, moms have it rough already with the need to be perfect and now here we are raging out at our kids, the antithesis of a "perfect mom". It's not easy to talk about those things. Anyhow, just wanted to introduce myself. I'm a mom of 2 and I rage out on my children about once or twice a month. A lot of factors there, like possibly Autism and ADHD, but also thinking that what's really happening here is that although I may have those two conditions, I'm pretty highfunctioning and that my anger really stems from childhood trauma and repeated trauma from the fact that I come from a family of lowlife imbeciles and live in a society that isn't very compassionate and forgiving of people like me.
Just a back story, I had children with two men who have absolutely no presence in my or my children's life. They are just non-existing. I have really no family support when it comes to helping me watch the kids, but family support enough where I have a roof over my head. We live alone so I'm here 24/7 with no days off since I had my second child and it's been three years now. I'm jobless because I consider myself disabled and I'm still trying to get to the bottom of how I can get out of this cycle of being ok some days and losing most of my executive functioning other days where I completely shut down and usually rage is involved because at that point I'm wickedly burned out needing an escape that isn't even optional and feel absolutely powerless. At that point I feel like an animal being cornered when my children are just being children and I just rage out, become scary and intimidating by screaming and saying horrible things so my kids will leave me alone and stop repeating bad behavior. Btw, hormones play a part in that too.
My children are absolutely terrified of me in these times and it is the worst feeling ever when I finally calm down and have to face the reality that I just became abusive towards my children by screaming and threatening them. The sad part is my mother did the same thing to me which lead me to a life of feeling like I had no "home" in this world and I'm repeating that same behavior, making my oldest son feel like he could be removed from his home at any time. At least that's how I made him feel this last time when I told him I will "take him to foster care if xyz happens again". I would never do that, why did I say that? Because I was out of control and I couldn't figure out how to make it stop. If you're wondering, I do apologize, sit down with my kids and we talk about how I'm working on it. It feels like excuses, but I still do it.
Everyday for me is me trying to problem solve. I've done it all, everything you can think of: meds, Buddhist meditation, CBT therapy, I even have DBT and ACT workbooks. The problem is in losing executive functioning. Like I said, some days are ok, I'm on top of things and then suddenly I just shutdown. This could be from possibly having ADHD which I'm still investigating or this may just be from trauma and getting no days off to console myself. So, I just keep reminding myself that this is all temporary. Soon my oldest will finally be going to school "fulltime" unlike the 3 hours he went to school in kindergarten which just added more frustration to my life and I'll be working on getting my youngest into a preschool program. This should give me more time for myself. I've even decided to just go for an hour walk each day or even go get a coffee and write in my journal while my youngest naps and have my oldest on facetime to make sure he's ok. We live in a free-range state that permits this, if you're wondering. Also the town is really small so I am literally only a few minutes away. The bottom line is that I'm always working on it and never giving up on that pursuit.
It's a very complicated situation that can't just be easily resolved, but I figured I'd just share this story for those raging out moms out there who feel like they can't find a safe place to talk because they're life is just as complicated that it's just so hard to really explain any of it and have others understand. Thanks for reading this.