Comment on Would you ever call your son a disappointment?
spencerwi@feddit.org 2 days ago
No.
I might, if what they did were severe enough, express that what they did is disappointing. But that’s different from branding them with the iron of disappointment-as-identity. Everyone does stuff sometimes that is worse than they aspire to be. The trick is coming back from it, learning and growing and changing.
I remember how it felt the day I asked my mom, after she had smacked me around a bunch and screamed at me for stuff she made up about me, “what did I ever do to you to make you hate me this much?”, and she screamed back “YOU WERE BORN!”
I was 12. No kid should ever feel the hopelessness and abandonment I felt in that moment.
ephrin@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I’m sorry that happened to you.
spencerwi@feddit.org 22 hours ago
Thanks. It wasn’t the worst thing she did, but it was particularly crystallizing.
I’ve done a lot of work on healing from it since. I’ve got a kid now, and it’s been healing to live every day in a way that shows that you totally can just love your kid and not have to treat them like that.
ephrin@sh.itjust.works 20 hours ago
Totally. Break the cycle. Proud of you.