Parenting And Education Stories

I have a very traditional family, especially my dad. He expects me to cook, clean, do his laundry, iron his clothes, and he controls everything. What I wear, what I do, how much makeup I put on, who I text—everything. It’s exhausting because I have to hide so much of my life. And I’m not even dressing inappropriately. I’m quite mature for my age and know what’s right and wrong.

He always blames my mom when something goes wrong. My whole family is like this. Once, when my mom was in the hospital, I had to take over everything. I came home from school exhausted and still had to clean, take care of my brother, and handle so much more. I was completely drained and went to my grandma’s house. She noticed and asked me what was wrong. When I explained, my grandpa said, “That’s a woman’s job, of course she should be doing it.”

Whenever we have visitors, my mom, my sister, and I have to clean everything, while the men just sit and eat.

I also notice clear differences in how my brother is treated compared to me. When I was his age, I was abused. When I was little, I barely ate, and it would take me hours. My parents would lash out at me and hit me—I was only five. When I was sick and threw up, they hit me. When I did something like swearing, I got hit again. They pulled my hair, threw me around, slapped me, and even hit me with a belt. I was constantly scared and cried a lot as a child, and I think it still affects me today.

And my brother? Nothing. Not once have they ever hurt him. I’m not saying they should—but why me and not him? I know they didn’t want a girl. At least my dad didn’t. But still, it’s not fair.

Recently, my brother has started hitting me and constantly annoying me, but no one cares. My parents do nothing about it. He swears at my mom and me and everyone around him, and they just laugh. If I had done that, I would have been punished badly.

Even now, when I talk back, they get angry. Once, my dad accused me of wearing makeup even though I wasn’t. He yelled at me, and when I talked back, it didn’t take him long to throw the first thing he could grab at me. Then he kept throwing things—while we were at a relative’s house.

I hate that I have to carry all this responsibility while they still treat me badly and don’t show me love. I hate that being a woman feels so much harder than being a man. Sometimes I wish I had been born a boy—everything would have been easier.

I’m really stressed because of school, and I can’t control my situation in any way. I hate it right now, and what makes it worse is that I chose to continue… I thought I could handle it, but I don’t know why I’ve been feeling so damn down lately.

I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, and my head hurts worse than before. I also have inflamed lymph nodes all over my head because of the stress I’ve been dealing with. I don’t know how to stop it—it just keeps going and getting worse by the second.

I hate school, but I can’t drop out now. I’m only in the second year, and it’s not like I’m bad or anything—it’s just the stress. I want to study, but I can’t. I can’t focus. It’s so overwhelming. I’m not sure if I’m made for this because it makes me feel horrible.

I don’t even have the energy to stand up anymore. Every time I try to study, I end up hyperventilating and crying. It’s not like I’m stupid—I have okay grades—but still… everything terrifies me. If I fail once, I’m scared to take the next exam. It feels like a never-ending cycle.

And my class is strange. They always make sexual comments toward girls. For example, once a friend of mine left class early for an appointment, and the boys kept saying she must have “done something” with the teacher so she could leave. It makes all of us uncomfortable and scared to do something wrong—at least for me, because they’ve said things like that about me too. The same kind of stuff, like I was “under the teacher’s desk.”

I don’t know… I just hate everything right now. Everything feels like too much and stresses me out more than ever before. I feel like a complete failure all the time. I also feel really sick 24/7—I don’t know why, but everything hurts. I just feel so damn bad all the time.

I've just started using this app, so I'm still figuring it out, and I'm sorry if my English isn't that good, it's not my first language.

I don't know who to tell or how to handle it, but lately I've been really stressed and I feel weird. My chest aches all day and doesn't seem to stop. I think part of it is because of school. I live in Switzerland and attend the so-called "Gymnasium." It's a pretty hard and challenging school. Lately, I've been feeling scared. I'm currently on holiday, but I start shaking and feel like I'm suffocating when I just think about going back. I haven't had the best experiences, a few weeks ago, my teacher humiliated me in front of the whole class. We had to do a group presentation and used ChatGPT because we didn't have enough time. He started calling me stupid and incapable of finishing school, and he continued to mock me. It was embarrassing, and he refused to let me sit back down; he kept me in the front of the class as he went on calling me stupid, saying I don't even understand shit about what's going on. And one thing you all must know: I'm a huge crybaby and really sensitive, so I had to sit in class for 40 minutes trying not to cry. Something like that happened again, I just get screamed at and humiliated even though I try my best. I feel scared to go back and make mistakes. Another reason is the huge amount of exams. I feel like my parents paid so much, so I can't disappoint them. It's all gotten so much that I feel too scared to study, go to school, or write exams. I also came across the thought that if I just killed myself, it would all be gone and everything would be better. This thought didn't cross my mind for the first time, I always struggle with it, but recently it's been getting more frequent, and I'm really damn scared of it. The feeling of not being good enough, the thoughts, the stress, they make me exhausted. I only sleep, barely eat, and I've started losing a lot of hair, like chunks come out as soon as I brush it once. I don't know what to do or how to make it stop; it just hurts so, so much. And even though my issues might seem like minor issues to you, I'm really struggling, especially since I can't talk to anyone. When I feel overwhelmed and cry, my parents scream at me, no hug, nothing, and threaten to take me out of school, saying I'm mentally unstable (as an insult) and that no one would want me like this. It hurts. I can't go to my mom or my friends when I need support. So if you guys have any tips on how I can handle all this, it would be nice if you could tell me.

(Is this the right category?...)

I’ve been thinking a lot about my family and my own dreams lately. I’m 20 now, and I’ve realized I’ve spent most of my life trying to balance my parents’ expectations with my own aspirations.

My parents are very traditional. They value education above almost everything, and they believe in following a strict path. My older brother and sister both got to study abroad—they followed the “dream” my parents set for them. And me? I’ve always wanted to go to Japan and pursue my dream of being a chef. I told them about it since I was in grade 6. I thought they would prepare something for me, support me in some way—but nothing happened. I had to find my own path.

Even when I finally found a school in Laos that could teach Japanese and arrange work in Japan, my health got in the way, so I had to drop out. I also struggled with my mental health because of the constant pressure to succeed the way my parents imagined. Every time I try to explain my situation, they either don’t listen or insist I follow the “plan” they think is right.

Growing up, I’ve realized that the real stress in my life doesn’t come from small things like playing games—it comes from the constant pressure and expectations from my family. People say “you play too many games, you’ll go crazy,” but honestly, I think I’d lose my mind more from their pressure than from Minecraft or Discord.

I use games and online communities as my safe space—a place to relax, talk to people my age who understand what I’m going through, and just feel a little free. It’s not about escaping reality; it’s about staying sane in a world that feels very controlling at times.

Sometimes I feel like my emotions about my family are fading, and maybe that’s a kind of survival. I just want to live my own life, follow my dreams, and open my own restaurant. Why is it so hard for my parents to let me make my own choices—even when they see my potential?

Penalty: The constant pressure isn’t just emotional—it’s practical too. My parents expect me to handle tasks at home all the time. Even my partner gets involved in helping my family, but the burden mostly falls on me. My mother says things like “you have to do your duty,” or assumes I’m available whenever needed, while she herself doesn’t step in. Recently, she asked my partner to serve my older brother, while I was exhausted from work. I couldn’t rest. Moments like these make me feel used, and they wear down my mental energy.

Original Mansion: I think about how unbalanced it all is. My family only helps when I’m not home. My father, for example, told me to study late at night—he wants me to push myself even when I’m tired. Coming home never means someone else will lighten my load. It’s always on me. I can see the pattern clearly: love in my family exists, but it’s conditional and mixed with strict expectations. The words “we all help” are just words—they don’t match reality.

I’m sharing this not to blame anyone, but just to put my thoughts out there. Maybe someone reading this will relate—or at least understand that sometimes, love isn’t the same as freedom, and growing up means learning to protect your own mind and dreams.

Hello all , so I just wanted to vent out my anger here because of my toxic household. I'm tired of having the victim mentality and of them . Everytime my asshole,pimp brother takes undue advantage of the situation and tries to put an argument ofr a fight between me and my parents . I feel like killing him to death. Everyone's controlling here. I can't even take or hoose clothes according to my choice. just fed up of this shit now . i dont want to live here anymore , always making me count things ,oing comparison between me and my brother . I'm scared to love anyone . she'll stab me to death . no such nonsense is enyertained here. I'm just waiting to move out yet they're behaving like this. I don't want anyone. so tired and exhausted of never giving up and the things which have togo through.

I have two grown boys. Their dad was abusive. My parents were self centered. I lived a whole life not talking about myself and now I am middle aged and find that I let everyone else tell my story. I find that the only things my kids (and most people) know about me are the things they were told by other people, and those people (I am finding) were very unreliable. There is safety in anonymity but it is also very lonely. My children don't know who I really am. Family fills in the blanks with their own assumptions because they don't understand what motivates me or inspires me. Now that I see this pattern, I am trying to fix it first by letting my children know about me and my history. It is scary- speaking up about myself. But it would be scarier to leave the earth without anybody understanding me. We all want to be seen, at least a little bit, by the people who matter to us.

Hey! I'm looking for some tips to learn dutch and maybe danish too. I've been facinated and utterly mesmerized by Brugge, Amsterdam and Brussels.

So, I think that my next goal is to save a lot of money and then come back in less than two years.

If it's something free it's more than great for me.

Bedankt!

When I grew up, I was so poor that I didn't consistently eat three meals a day until I was eight years old. I would go to sleep clawing at myself to ease the pain of hunger.

My mom didn't let any of my mistakes escape my memory since she told everyone she knew anytime I would mess up.

After my dad left because he was sick and tired of living with my mom, my siblings started to beat me since I was the youngest and they had a bunch of pent up anger because they didn't know why all of these bad things were happening to them. I was so scared that I'd run to the kitchen and get knives to defend myself, although I was too scared to use them.

I loved my siblings though, they were my only friends, so when I turned thirteen and learned that my mom had allowed two people I knew and trusted a lot to make sexual advances on my sister, I nearly killed myself.

I left my mom's house to live with my dad. Shortly after that, I learned that my mom's new boyfriend had beat my pets and pointed a gun at my brother.

I'm now 19 and still refuse to forgive my mom or either of the men. I hate myself, I hate that I wasn't given a fair chance, I hate that nobody cared when I told them that my mom and siblings hurt me at home since they thought I was just being a wimp, I hate everything. I believe that nobody is truly good and have severe PTSD when women get too close to me, I can't talk right, I freeze up, I begin to imagine the worst possible outcomes, I can't think of a single time in my life where I've felt completely safe when I was with anybody.

What’s the point of life… Like yea, you wake up, shower, eat, do whatever work or go to school, go home, sleep. It’s just a cycle and it’s getting pretty fucking tiring. All this just to die? I understand that there’s more to explore, but what ab the people who genuinely want nothing to do with it? Are we just supposed to stay until we lose our shi and take matters to our own hands? Likeee I don’t mean to sound suicidal and all but like what are we here for? I rlly don’t wanna be here… Evb ik is just so shitty and tiring and draining. I’ve been burnt out for a year or two and nobody even noticed.

Genuinely what do people mean when they say “if you have letters to write then you have reasons to stay” like girl fym? I’m writing to apologize and finally show my struggles that they managed to miss. Don’t tell me “Oh, then why don’t you tell them?” Because their reasonings are quite literally unhelpful and is in fact making my state worse. I don’t need them to share their own stories. I don’t need them to give me advice, use their experience as an example, I don’t need them to be all up on my side constantly after opening up. No, I won’t tell them this. They aren’t going to do any of that. So anw, ppl who say those genuinely confuse me bcs wdym I’m about to let go, leave them letters for why I’m LEAVING and NOT STAYING. Make it make sense ‘cause right now, it doesn’t to me.

So my brother is apparently 'sick' but my mom doesnt believe him, so she told him that he was going to school instead of staying home. my brother kept on saying that he wasn't. me and my brother share a room btw. i was getting in some extra sleep while my mom and my brother were arguing, since I was ready by 7:10 am so I still had a good 30 minutes to sleep. when I woke up my mom called me down for breakfast. when I went downstairs I saw cereal witb honey on it, but there was a really small amount of milk. I genuinely cant eat foods if I dont like the look of it and I told my mom that I didnt want to eat it. my mom started yelling at me to start eating it. then my dad came in and started yelling at me. I told my mom that im sorry but I still dont wanna eat it. after that my mom threw the bowl of cereal at the table (it didnt break). she was just screaming at me about how much of a brat I was and then she threw the bowl of cereal into the sink. I just ran upstairs and started crying. then she told me to come down because I still need to eat. when I came downstairs and she saw that I was crying she just started acting like she wasnt the one screaming at me. she was hugging me and saying "dont cry sweetie". when I kept crying she started yelling again and then went back to comforting me. she gave me some leftover banana bread, but I was only able to eat an ⅛ of it since I was crying so much that I lost my appetite. after my mom dropped me off at school I went up to my friends. I was trying not to cry, but I just started crying infront of my friends. they were very confused and just stood there silently. after my classes it was time for lunch break and I told my friends why I was crying in the morning. they never gave their opinion on the situation, so do I have a right to be mad at my mom?

so i just wanna clarify, i'm a minor and i'm not straight. or cis for that matter. i'm a homo in a family of phobics. whatever, my family doesn't support me. and uhh kinda off topic for being gay, but my mom takes all my stuff and goes through all of it, which pisses me the fuck off because if she didn't do that back when i was like 11 i would probably be fine. she went through all of it. messages, school notes, i even found her logged into my school email account. she then confronted me with "why do you say you're a boy? only sa'd people can be queer!" and then that's around the time i got really suicidal and started sh. which is obviously not okay with someone who had just come out of elementary?? and she always says that i learned what being gay was from social media, which is totally bogus because she taught me what that was when i was six! lady wants to blame everything on anything but herself. she also says that when i was little and she used to lock me in the closet it was because i was her first child and she didn't know that was wrong. fuck that shit she was the oldest child in her family and she basically raised my uncle. she never locked him in closets for shit he didn't even do when he was 3. she also thinks my friends are bad influences. sure, some of them have their own issues and addictions and other stuff, but they stopped me from killing myself when my mom didn't even know i wanted to die. she thought i was just a weird kid with weird interests at the time. i dont think it crossed her mind that i was the one who was taking all the pencil sharpeners and stealing the blades. i mean, why else would i have a screwdriver in my room? strange how she wasn't too concerned when i wouldn't go into the pool and wore sweaters all summer. not weird at all. oh! and recently she was telling me how i was pretending to be gay and that i dressed "weird" to impress my friends, and that i wanted to be just like her. first of all, i lost a ton of 'friends' for being gay and for dressing alt. second of all, shes a forty two year old woman. im a teenage loser. i dont wanna be like her at all. i hate her. she always goes to the extreme and expects me to be a little version of her and thinks that im pretending to wanna be a boy. but i DO wanna be boy. i wish i was born a boy. i wanna look like one, sound like one, be treated like i'm a REAL boy. im sick and tired of people treating me like i'm some fragile little creature who's "just confused". it's not a fucking phase i wanna be a boy i hate being called a girl i wish i was born a boy why did i have to be born a girl. and uh yeah. so fun wanting to be a boy and having that struggle of being called a girl on top of shitty classmates and a mom who genuinely makes you wanna relapse every two days.

What's a great present for a friend who became a mother recently, I wanna buy something for the baby but I also wanna give something beautiful and not too common for her. I'm really good at giving presents but I wanna hear some ideas.

Thanks

Just as the title says, my school does care more than my family. More about if I'm okay, if I'm hurting, if i'm overwell okay. Where my family only cares if I convenience them or are doing something they don't like. They've caused me severe anxiety, manic depression, atychiphobia (fear of failure), Bipolar, and an ED. They only focus on what benefits them or if i'm disappointing them. My sibling is the worst, they ignore me unless they find something to tell the person who cares for us.