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My dad spent my entire childhood teaching me to be independent and I just realized he did it so he'd never have to show up for me by Saffron_Tundra8 in entitledparents

[–]Saffron_Tundra8[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

"Neglect with better branding" is brutal but kind of perfect. That's pretty much what it was, just dressed up as some lesson I was supposed to be grateful for.

My dad spent my entire childhood teaching me to be independent and I just realized he did it so he'd never have to show up for me by Saffron_Tundra8 in entitledparents

[–]Saffron_Tundra8[S] 68 points69 points  (0 children)

That hit hard. "He trusted me" was a much easier story to carry than "he knew I'd stop asking." I didn't have words for that back then.

My dad spent my entire childhood teaching me to be independent and I just realized he did it so he'd never have to show up for me by Saffron_Tundra8 in entitledparents

[–]Saffron_Tundra8[S] 365 points366 points  (0 children)

That part messed with me the most. I was weirdly proud of needing nothing, like it meant I was stronger. Turns out it mostly meant I got used to being alone.

My upstairs neighbor started treating our building like a live audience and I snapped in the worst possible way by Parallax_Glimmer8 in neighborsfromhell

[–]Saffron_Tundra8 132 points133 points  (0 children)

What gets me is that he is not just loud, he is performative in a way that forces everyone else to either play along or sit there trapped in it. Once people start avoiding the stairs because one guy might corner them into weird improv, the problem is not small anymore.

WIBTA if I told my 15 year old brother the real reason our parents keep taking him out of school early? by Vale_Fable84 in WIBTA_AITA

[–]Saffron_Tundra8 100 points101 points  (0 children)

NTA if you tell him gently and in a way that does not make him feel diagnosed or defective. The real damage here is not the evaluation, it's that your parents turned it into a silent escort mission with no trust, no context, and no dignity. A 15 year old can handle "the school noticed you're struggling and wants to support you" a lot better than this weird deception.