I Don’t Care If You’re Family
If you’re an asshole I’m not spending my time with you.
I’ve been down this path before. Too many times I’ve attended family gatherings and events and have been forced to see them — in the moment or later on — through the filters of other people's beliefs, desires, or memories, real or imagined. This consistent pattern of gaslighting and manipulation affected my experiences both at the moment and later when listening to someone else’s recounting of what happened and it sounds more like Mr. Toads Wild Ride than anything near what I remember.
There is it, transgenerational dysfunction in a nutshell.
So parents, remember, keep your fucked up stories about your experiences to yourself. Let your children see the world through their own eyes.
Yes, I know as parents we are supposed to keep our children safe. So no, I don’t want you sending your daughter next door to play with the boy who you know is a creep and probably pulls his wanker out whenever his mom leaves the room. But before you go using words your daughter has never heard, why don’t you first ask her what her experience was? And let that be the experience, her story. Don’t sugarcoat it to protect the creep next door, or anyone else.
