“I Was Free”: 30 Early Warning Signs Of Estrangement From Parents

I felt like they were constantly criticizing my life choices instead of supporting me.

My parents making everything I vent to them about, about themselves..

When they told me I wasn’t ‘Christian enough’ of an example for my younger siblings and would no longer be welcome in their house.

Why wasn’t I ‘Christian enough’? I told a youth pastor my older bro was SA-ing me.

Needless to say, I have issues with organized religion (the pastors (yes, multiple) did nothing) and don’t have any relationship with the parentals.

That doesn’t stop them from trying to ‘get the whole family together’ because it would be ‘so nice’ to have a family picture of everyone smiling together….

I would be forced to forgive them by other relatives. If my father threw things at me and destroyed my possessions and screamed, I was pressured to be the bigger person and mend the relationship.

If my mother kicked me and told me I "needed to be evaluated" and "something is wrong with your brain" for not wanting to hang out with a relative who was grooming me (who gave my parents a lot of money), I couldn't interact with my other relatives until I started talking to her again.

I knew from an early age I'd leave them all someday and finally be able to hold a damn grudge in peace.

There wasn’t much of a relationship to begin with. My earliest memories involved being insulted and smacked around by parents.

Once I broke free of them, it felt like this massive burden was lifted from my shoulders. I was a new man.

My husband hasn't seen his parents in 23 years. Mom left when he was a teen, stayed in town but didn't want to be a Mom anymore. She regrets it now at nearly 70 but it's too late. Dad raised him but didn't want to. When he moved away from home at 22, they just stopped speaking. Parents over all just didn't have interest in kids, but for some reason, they had 4.

In my 40’s. My dad died 3 years ago. Before his death he was the only reason I was in the same room with my mother. 10 years ago she drove over to my house one night and she tried to call me to repentance for leaving culty Mormonism. And when I got divorced from my ex wife, her first words were “how could you do this to me”. I didn’t speak to her at all for almost two years. After my dad died I tried being the best son again. I called her often, etc. But her not allowing me to give the eulogy as the eldest child in the family and having my younger Mormon brother do it hurt a ton. My dad was my best friend.

When family dinners turned into epic debates on who’s the bigger drama queen.

When my mother would leave me home alone at 4 years old, the last straw was overhearing her say how much she wished I had died instead of my sister, & then she took my kids from me, and making it impossible to get them back, but I’m still fighting.

When my mother tried to get me to prioritize her over my new wife of