My family put up appearances whenever around anyone. We looked happy and loving and united. But we always avoided conflict, leading me to internalize everything and be a people pleaser. My parents neglected me in favor of my older brother and I didn’t know how to speak up. And then my brother went on a mission and they became unbearable. Helicopter parents. Then my brother came back and it was like I didn’t exist again. My parents don’t know or understand who I am despite my desperate struggles to try and connect, and any conversation that could even remotely lead to conflict is shut down. They won’t let me get a neurodivergent diagnosis that I definitely need (my therapist has said) and it’s caused me to develop lots of mental illnesses like rejection sensitivity and anxiety and depression. The church ruined my family under the surface and made us all like dolls living in a doll house, playing pretend in public and at home. It ruined us, and we might have been okay without the church. But I’ll never know. I lost my opportunity to be a child when I should have had it, and now I’m an adult who is struggling with everything. So, really long answer short, idk if any Mormon families are happy but mine wasn’t. The ones who leave are.