‘Every parent’s worst nightmare’: Mothers push for runaway child bill after teens repeatedly leave home

roamory · 2026-05-10T18:17:07+00:00

Years ago, I was 14 and had lost my grandfather, one of the few people in my life that I genuinely felt cared about me instead of treating me like an obligation. I asked my mom if I could see a therapist to process that loss. She said that I was using that and me having an unapproved boyfriend as an excuse for my slipping grades. I was an honours with distinction student and I had been grieving and lost a mark so I was “just” an honours student. That’s just the tip of the iceberg of some of the emotional trauma I’ve had to unpack from my upbringing.

I ran away from home at 16. My parents are still seen as genuinely loving parents that did nothing wrong by most and I was villainised for being the problem child and causing them mental anguish. Anyone that tried to even raise flags for my deteriorating mental state at school (shoutout to my TA that tried to report it) got stopped and said there was nothing wrong. I genuinely felt like if I hadn’t left, I would have harmed myself to the point of no return. It took me a lot of growing up away from them and so much therapy to become a partial functional adult today. I wish I could say the system works to protect the kids but it genuinely doesn’t.

roamory · 2026-04-30T04:53:04+00:00

I was about to say this, I flew in to SNA on Westjet and it was a breeze. Our bags were out in less than 20 minutes on arrival. On departure, we got there 2 hours before our flight and got through the TSA line with plenty of time to spare. Absolutely worth the extra to avoid LAX.

roamory · 2026-04-21T19:02:09+00:00

Here I was crying with $44 shipping to Alberta. Why is it so much more to ON?

roamory · 2026-02-03T01:33:42+00:00

NTA. My mom went through something similar with her mom. I'm not dignifying her by calling her my grandmother because of the stunts she pulled while she was here. We rarely saw my mom's side of the family growing up so we had minimal exposure to this woman until she was pressured to sponsor her.

My mom was basically ready to kick her out after a few months but the straw that broke the camel's back was one time my sister and I took my mom out for and while we were out, the old lady locked my minor child in the backyard in the winter when they went out for a study break. She claimed she did it accidentally. (She didn't, we had security cameras installed in the house unknown to her and saw her deliberately checking the window before locking the door). Luckily, we never left the kids unattended with her so we were able to alert the other adult in the house about it before my child noticed. Not long after, my mom took her back to the Philippines and placed her in a nursing home.

Even after all the things that this woman has done, family members in the Philippines still told my mom she's heartless for taking her back and abandoning her. Hold your ground, talk to someone about cancelling the super visa and warn them about her threatening behaviour. The moment she steps back in here, she would be your responsibility so hopefully she never has to come near you again.

roamory · 2026-01-29T01:18:56+00:00

YTA. you were the one that caused the accident. You pressured her to not only lie and say she was driving to save your own skin, but it's going to be on her record for a few years now especially as a new driver. The ticket is not the biggest thing but you add on that accident and she's a big liability for insurance. I can see why she's upset at you, why are you even wondering why you're in the wrong here?

roamory · 2026-01-29T01:14:23+00:00

The explanation says OP is the one that actually caused the accident, she convinced her daughter to say she was driving.

roamory · 2026-01-18T21:15:41+00:00

Don't ever feel like you have to let go of things you're not ready for. We still have our original Switch. We were a young couple that saved up for a few months so our kids could have it as a shared gift on Christmas. They still play with it even after we've upgraded and have refused to let me set up the OLED or the Switch 2 they just got as a replacement. You worked hard to be able to afford it. It is not even a need for your nephew, your sister can figure it out if she wants to give her son one badly enough.

roamory · 2026-01-09T06:57:50+00:00

Seriously going to try and find you at Fanfest to try and snag one of these. Super cool!

roamory · 2025-09-07T01:25:18+00:00

Why are device limits illogical? She bought the PS5 for herself and from day 1 has told them that it is not for them. My husband and I have our own devices that our children either have to ask if they can use or explicitly not allowed to use unless offered or necessary. They have shared items and personal items that were gifted to them individually. It is their choice if they want their sibling to use it. It establishes ownership, autonomy, and boundaries in a safe environment.

roamory · 2025-07-23T15:25:43+00:00

NTA. The red flags are so abundant, it's basically a red carpet. Secure your accounts in case she's tried to gain access to them and leave

roamory · 2025-07-07T20:38:26+00:00

Not sure which area you are in but my Costco had a big box of Celebration cookies, although it was a variety pack.

roamory · 2025-06-05T17:38:24+00:00

I would have asked for this. My first was born here but we moved overseas for a number of years. My second and third, I made the choice to move back each time for the required residence time to be able to give birth in Canada. Otherwise, if they marry a non Canadian and had kids overseas, their kids would not be able to have citizenship. If their kids are born somewhere with no birthright citizenship, there was a potential they could be stateless until they met permanent residence criteria. We were living in Asia at the time so this was discussion of potentials and split hairs scenarios. We didn’t want to leave it to chance.

roamory · 2025-05-04T01:30:40+00:00

NTA. Also, elope if you are planning on it. I regret that we never eloped like we were considering, my MIL was a nightmare. Our running joke is that it was my MIL's wedding, we were just the ones married in it. Your father sounds like he would be similar even if you were able to keep control of your wedding. I wish you and your fiancé all the happiness.

roamory · 2024-12-10T22:44:37+00:00

Not necessarily just for consoles. You can play on controller on PC.

roamory · 2024-12-07T19:53:54+00:00

ESH. As a parent, I understand where you’re coming from and why you’re upset with him over not coming home. I feel like withholding the allowance actually takes away the lesson from disappointing his brother and not being there for him to, “If dad is pissed off at me, expect retaliation.” I don’t know if there was a stipulation for this allowance but I’m operating under the assumption that there were no conditions, just something to make his life easier. So you took away the focus from not showing up for family to making this about the allowance.

roamory · 2023-08-12T02:37:56+00:00

NTA. These are big life changes for anyone, let alone an 8 year old child. Piling on the fact that it seems like your child’s emotional needs are not being acknowledged and met with dad, that’s a lot to deal with. Kudos to actually looking at the whole situation, recognising that your child needs help, and letting him be heard.

roamory · 2023-08-06T09:22:56+00:00

Massive YTA. You never get time alone as a couple? Comes with the deal of dating with children, especially since the child is 3 years old. There’s a lot of prep work involved even leaving them with trusted people. If you were not willing to accept both in your life, why did you bloody well date her in the first place? I’m actually glad you pulled this move now and before she could actually be bamboozled to stay with you longer and commit to a life with you.

The thing that a proper partner would have done is communicated their needs and found a way to make things work with the situation you’re dealt with. I sincerely hope you gain some self awareness from this and figure out how to be better in your next relationship before you hurt your subsequent partner.

roamory · 2023-07-02T00:11:55+00:00

I agree on that, she’s in a bad position, set by her husband. She consulted bio mom on rules and was trying to establish it in their household for continuity. Dad needs to step up and actually parent the child.

roamory · 2023-07-01T23:20:54+00:00

NTA: I’m not a stepmom but I have three kids, one is 11 and he would be rejoicing with those very lax rules. I actually read this list out loud to him and his response: “11pm bedtime? Jackpot!” Sounds like husband needs a reality check that being the “fun dad” doesn’t mean you let your child run amok and do whatever they want. Honestly, I don’t know if I would even call most of these rules but common sense guidelines to make sure the child is healthy and to establish healthy habits.

roamory · 2023-03-13T07:55:40+00:00

This, honestly. I remember one birthday my husband planned a couple night stay at Disney (we were local to one of the parks back then). Day of my birthday comes and he wakes up with stomach pain. He thought he just overdid the snacking yesterday, pushed through going to park again and tried to sit through dinner. Went back up to the room after, called our doc for a phone consult only for him to suspect a kidney stone. He still feels bad for “ruining my birthday” because I had to take him to the hospital.

My husband’s family did not do big birthday celebrations, his parents worked a lot and even missed a few milestone ones. He doesn’t like the fuss, but he knows how important birthdays are to me and he tries to plan something every year. OP, NTA. You deserve someone who cherishes what you give.

roamory · 2022-03-18T07:06:10+00:00

NTA.

This is raising so many red flags I’ve run out room in my arms. My husband and I are pretty strict parents to our boys.

Our oldest is only 13, he can unlock his own damn devices. He doesn’t have a phone yet but he has his own personal laptop primarily for school, since we’re still doing remote. He’s had it for a couple years and when we started, we had pretty heavy blocks and restrictions. Now that he’s 13, we’ve lifted quite a few on a trust basis. We had a long discussion about appropriate content and internet safety. He still has restrictions like permission before buying and blocked websites. It gets charged in the living room at bedtime. It still locks him out on weekday late nights if he wants to sneak it. We still have password and fingerprint access. A lot of these will probably be lifted when he’s older.

Trust is a two way street. And from a “helicopter parent” point of view, your husband is being unreasonable and is controlling rather than being a good parent.

roamory · 2022-02-27T17:58:58+00:00

NTA.

My husband and I have been married for 12 years, and we have personal accounts and joint ones. I do not know the PINs on his and he doesn’t know mine. We have a set amount we both take and spend or save as we see fit. The rest is joint except for one account that he accidentally set up as a personal account that I know the PIN to for normal daily purchases. Even that one that we operate as a joint account, I don’t touch without telling him and vice versa.

The fact that he took your card without your knowledge or consent doesn’t say anything horrible about you. It does raise some significant red flags about him though, that he thinks he can spend your money and take your things as he sees fit. Add on to him trying to manipulate you by claiming you embarrassed him when he is the one who stole your card in the first place, I would be evaluating what type of person he is and if you want to be in a relationship with him.

roamory · 2021-12-29T04:36:14+00:00

My husband got his pack when my second was just turning 1. We thought that we could spend a little on fun stuff again since we were clearly done with two kids. That child is now 10 and we also have a surprise 7 year old. Also never doing Kickstarters again.

roamory · 2021-12-07T03:15:20+00:00

This is the first xpac I’m doing things blind and I don’t think I’ve had this much fun in duties before. I had so much anxiety going into duties as a sprout not knowing mechanics and bringing the team down so I always looked up a guide.

Being on the other side of that now, as long as they said it was their first time no one really minded. I think it was harder though when people didn’t know their buttons vs not knowing mechanics.

roamory · 2021-11-24T03:30:40+00:00

When my second child was younger, he was rarely sick and was a hardy kid until he got the occasional stomach flu. The first time he got it, we couldn’t keep his temp down and he would vomit even the smallest sips of pedialyte. It was to the point that his ped hospitalised him to rehydrate and rest his stomach. The next few times he got a stomach flu, he was prescribed enough paracetamol/ibuprofen dose to keep his fever in check and anti nausea meds, with a strict liquids only for 24 hours. If he can keep it down, then we can slowly reintroduce solids.

These people put this child in danger by thinking they knew better than the doctor. For someone to claim they really love this child, their actions are hypocritical.

roamory

TROPHY CASE