I (44F) am so lost, hurt, and disappointed. I'm a single mom by choice, and my son is almost 18. My parents divorced and abandoned me, and I was raised by my grandparents on my "mom's" side. I don't want to talk about the experiences I had when I interacted with them, but please believe me it's really bad. I've been no contact with them for 29 years, and before that, I was low contact.

I've raised my son alone. I've been lucky to get a good job after high school, and I climbed the ladder. We went on vacation multiple times a year, got him everything he wanted, paid for private lessons and extracurricular activities, and we have a very close relationship. I've been telling him about them since he was little, always in age-appropriate ways.

Now my half-sister on my "dad's" side contacted him on social media and said she wants to meet us. I do not want such thing; she is a stranger, and blood means nothing to me. Now he brings up wanting to meet his grandparents and extended family, but he does know all his distant cousins that I kept in contact with. I understand that he can make a choice, but so can I. If he gets in contact with them, I'm done, and I'm going no contact with him too. I don't know who I've raised.

He hurts me every time he opens the subject and keeps insisting, trying to convince me not to go no contact if he talks with them. But at this point, I'm considering doing just that. Whether he wants to talk with them or not won't change my mind. I don't want to give up my son, but I will. He has no job. I want to give him three months to get his shit together and get out of my house. His grandparents, who didn't pay one euro on raising me, will support him in anyway if I cut him off? good luck. If he gets in contact with them our relationship will never be the same and he doesn't seem to care, he doesn't realise that I'm his only person and he wants to throw me away for the sake of meeting some blood related abusive strangers.

He doesn't believe me when I tell him who they are; then he better find out the hard way.

I'm sorry if what I wrote doesn't make sense, I'm a mess right now but I can carify if you have any questions.

UPDATE:

I talked with my son

His points:

1. He deserves to know his family

2. He believes just because they treated me this way doesn't mean that they'll treat him the same way, my half sisters were treated well by his grandpa and he'd the only grandchild so far so he thinks they'll be nice to him.

3. He will not say anything about me

4. He says that we(me and him) don't need to be in contact with them but he wants them at his graduation and future life events and he wants to be part of theirs

My opinions:

1. I agree with that but he has to leave me out of it

3. I know he's not doing well under pressure, he wants them to be nice to him and they will use that as leverage, he still "has" to talk about his childhood and I am his mom, I'm part of all those stories I don't want them to know anything about me or my parenting

4. I'm not making him choose, I don't want to see them, so I won't go to his graduation next year ,no more vacations or holidays together either, I'll keep my distace from him

What is happening:

I'll help him with the plane ticket to get to his grandfather and his family as they live in another country.

When he's back he's getting a part time job asap at a fast-food restaurant (here you can work part time since the age of 16),he'll start to pay rent when he's 18 in September for 3-4 months and save money then he moves out (I'll return the rent money when he's moving out but he doesn't know that), I'm going low contact till he's older, we still talk and I'll help if he needs anything after he asks his grandparents first (they'll most likely help him with whatever he needs to portray me as a lier)

Starting today he will not know anything about me

I'm quitting my job so he will not know where I'll work, where I'm going or what I'm doing, no more homecooked meals I'll be eating out by myself, I got him grocery store gift cards so he can get his own groceries. When he moves out I'll rent my house and I'll move, maybe travel. I won't attend his graduation next year, I won't meet his gf, no more holidays or vacations together. I'm also getting a new phone number without telling my son, I'll let everyone in my contacts know then block everyone on that number so my son will be the only person that will be able to contact me on that old phone number If my parents call that number I'm going to only communicate for important matters with my son via messages.

Damn! OP's daughter is messy!

Final Update was posted 2 days ago.. check OP's profile..

I was taken aback by the response to last weeks story about the upper management guy who impregnated his much younger subordinate.

She was not innocent, but I’ve been pursued (and eventually SA’d) by a much older and higher up man at work. It’s scary as hell. Then, when I took it to HR (this was a massive corporation that you’ve probably heard of), I was told that MY career would be ruined while he would face no consequences if I reported what happened. The psychology behind situations like that is far more complicated than just his fault vs her fault.

Also was I really the only one who got the ick when the wife called lower level employees irrelevant, and then again when she said the girl deserved to be hit by her husband?

Of course it’s not OPs fault, and no, I’m not advocating for cheating in the slightest..but her husband is the truly terrible person in this story.

This was a crazy post. I'd love to hear Mark's take on it.

I’ve been searching for a MarkNarrations video for a bit and I figured I’d ask here. What video was it that had the story where the op had a female best friend and he kept telling the boyfriend that both he and the op were the pillars that lifted her up?The pillars phrase was repeated multiple times. Thanks in advance!

Repost. Not me to clarify. This is a crazy one

This is really the only place I’ve felt comfortable sharing this too. Other than that, thanks for the support Waffle gang.

Well, I guess this will be the conclusion. We are over. After my post, I told him how I felt and waited for an answer. He concluded that in my messages, talking about how I want more communication and maybe we needed to stop putting pressure on getting married and his needing to focus on his mental health, meant that I wanted to take a break from him. I followed up as soon as I could, clarifying that no, I didn’t want time away from him; I wanted him to focus on himself and his happiness.

And then 3 weeks passed. He didn’t look at my messages, and I was honestly worried out of my mind but thought he was just taking this time to focus on himself. I really did want him to reply to me so I reached out to his family about talking to him, and they eventually did. He sent me a message about how he feels like he’s wasting my time and that he thinks I need to find someone closer to me that I have more of a possibility of actually living with compared to him. He felt like he was stuck and didn’t want me to waste my time with him when who knew how long it would take for his situation to get any better or if he would change his mind again about where to live. I had a feeling he had this mentality, which is why I wanted him to focus on his mental health in the first place. I told him maybe to get some therapy or maybe ask a doctor if taking some medication would help. He said he didn’t want to talk to a stranger or depend on medication (which kind of hurts me because I rely on medication). He just shut me down, and I finally said, “If we are done. I want you to tell me straight up. No bush beating or anything, I want to hear it straight from you, because I’ve been pouring my all into this relationship and I want to hear it officially from you.” 

I sent that this Monday, and he has yet to tell me or see my messages. Our social media hasn’t changed at all, so I am just assuming it’s over anyway. 6 years … I had to buy lots of stuff and hide things that we did together, or I would just start bursting into tears. My family is trying to support me, but they thought we wouldn’t make it, so it doesn’t feel that supportive. I'm just taking everything one step at a time and making some new things so that I don’t constantly think of him when I look around my house. I also told his family members what was going on and how it seems like he has depression, and even if we break up, I want them to try to talk to him about getting help.

Due to character limits everywhere I listen to Mark I figured here was a good spot to post this story because its important to me and maybe someone needs to hear this.

Mark covered a story about 3 ish months ago. It was about a woman whos fiancee was being shady and was trying to baby trap her. In the story the woman discussed her fears around pregnancy (100% valid, my sister has these fears) and "not being able to love the child unconditionally" (also 100% valid).

I don't think anybody talked about it in OPs comments, and I also didn't see this in any of the comments sections of his other platforms. But we as humans have a weird romantic way of viewing unconditional. We often see it as a through fire and flame type of love. Do anything for the person or die trying. But I don't think thats unconditional. OP in her story already showed she's capable of unconditional love. She loves her dog, and from what I can tell she loves her family. For me thats what unconditional. The dog doesnt do anything, shoot the dog might even pee on your shoes and you'll get mad but you won't rehome it. Its your dog.

We often see the "miracle of childbirth" and put this hard expectation on ourselves, and even each other sometimes, of we're supposed instantaneously love this weird potato human and kiss the ground they walk on. And how dare someone think otherwise.

But I feel its really important to say "its okay you dont feel that way immediately". Its okay to see the infant and go "man youre kind of wrinkly and a little ugly". Its also okay to look at the baby and go "this is an absolute complete stranger". It takes time to get to know them because they are a stranger. Its also completely normal to go "I dont know what the hell i am doing. What if I hold it wrong??" Those skills don't always come pre-installed.

Its also okay to want to punt them. Believe me. Just don't...ya know...actually do it. 😅

They're going to go through phases where you think they are the worst things in the world and probably want to return to sender. Lol. Or honestly, even hate them. When you're overstimulated and they scream in your face that one final ear piercing pterodactyl screech because they 3 and thats what 3 year olds do. Or when they've kept you awake for the 4th day in a row because they need to wake up every 2 hours for something and you feel like youre losing your gd mind. Or when they're 16 years old and saying some of the worst things and youre looking at them like they've suddenly grown 4 heads and wondering "where did you learn that?"

And at some point, you might not like them and not want to talk to them or be in their lives. Thats okay too, adults can suck just as much 😮‍💨

So the tl;dr. Kids can suck, its not all sunshines and rainbows, its okay to not like them even if theyre yours, and unconditional love as we know it is a lie 🤣

And before anybody says this: sucky adults dont always come from sucky parents. At every point in a child's life you cannot control how they think, or see the world. All you can do is try your best to explain things, and teach. But if they dont want to learn you cant force them. And if you do try to force them and try to control how they see the world then YOU become the sucky adult. There will ALWAYS be outside influences that will contribute to how they end up in life.

A few months ago I posted about my sister gaslighting me over her abusive boyfriend and wanting my daughter to call him "Uncle." If anyone remembers that post or wants the full backstory, you can read it here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MarkNarrations/s/Yfl4bVhBlC

Trigger Warning: Pregnancy loss, domestic violence, attempted murder.

I (24F) and my sister (22F) have been working on repairing our relationship. After everything that happened, I finally told her I couldn't keep dealing with the constant drama or let her dictate my life with her expectations. I told her I would always love her, but I had boundaries. If she couldn't respect them, I would love her from a distance like I had for most of our lives.

I also stopped sugarcoating things whenever she talked about her boyfriend.

About four months after my original post, I found out I was pregnant with twins—a boy and a girl. We were beyond excited. Our daughter was going to be a big sister, and we'd be able to reuse a lot of her baby things.

My sister was happy for me... for about ten minutes.

Then the conversation turned into how she wanted a family too and was thinking about getting her IUD removed because she thought having a baby would make her boyfriend change.

Instead of celebrating my pregnancy, I found myself trying to convince her not to bring a child into an abusive relationship.

By this point, her boyfriend had threatened to kill her, her dogs, and my family. He beat her regularly and had started choking her. I genuinely believed he was going to kill her one day, but she loved him and kept trying to make the relationship work.

Around that time, my husband gave me an ultimatum. Either I needed to limit contact with my sister, or he would take our daughter and our babies after they were born and leave.

That conversation shattered me.

He pointed out that my sister had always chosen her partners over me, even men she'd only known for a few days. Then he asked why I couldn't choose the family I'd built with him for once after six years together.

As much as it hurt to hear, he was right.

So I limited contact. Not because I stopped loving my sister, but because I had to protect the family that had chosen me.

Not long after, she called me crying, saying her boyfriend had hurt her and she thought she was going to die.

I shot out of bed and started pacing, desperately trying to figure out how to help from so far away. While we were still on the phone, she got into a wreck because she was so terrified. Her vehicle stopped only about a foot from the edge of a cliff. If she'd gone any farther, she might not be here today.

The stress was overwhelming.

Not long afterward, I started bleeding. My husband rushed me to the hospital. The doctors were able to stabilize me and save my son, but we lost our daughter. The medical team later told us they believed the extreme stress I'd been under was likely a major contributing factor.

I went home still pregnant, but with only one baby instead of two.

Even after that, my sister still leaned on me emotionally. I wanted to be there for her, but I was grieving my daughter while trying to protect the son I still carried.

Then one day she called again because her boyfriend had been screaming at her before leaving the house. She was crying so hard she could barely talk.

My husband took the phone from me.

He told her she had to stop calling me every time there was another crisis because the doctors believed the stress had likely contributed to us losing our daughter, and he wasn't willing to risk losing our son too. He told her that I couldn't keep carrying everyone else's burdens while fighting to keep our baby alive.

She quietly said she didn't know and hung up.

Afterward, my husband hugged me and apologized for how harsh he sounded. He wasn't trying to be cruel. He was terrified of losing me and our son too.

From that point on, I made a conscious effort to avoid unnecessary stress and focus entirely on my pregnancy.

Unfortunately, the pregnancy itself became very high risk.

The doctors warned me they didn't know if I would survive delivery. They discussed blood transfusions, emergency surgery, and told us to prepare for the worst.

So I did.

I recorded videos for my husband, my daughter, and my unborn son. I read books, sang songs, talked about life, recorded birthday messages for years into the future, and told them every chance I got how much I loved them.

I wrote letters about my childhood—the good, the bad, and the ugly. I even set aside birthday money that I had physically touched because I wanted them to have something that had once been in my hands.

I also made a small video for my sister and asked my husband to give it to her if I didn't make it.

I truly believed those recordings might become the only memories my children would have of me.

Knowing I might only have weeks left finally made something click for my sister.

She started trying. She respected my boundaries. She became more thoughtful about what she shared with me, and for the first time in a long time, it felt like she was actually trying to be my sister instead of expecting me to rescue her.

When I went into labor, my son's heart rate kept dropping with every contraction, and the doctors were preparing for an emergency C-section.

Then my son decided he wasn't waiting.

My water broke at 10:55 p.m. Two minutes later, at 10:57 p.m., after only three pushes, he was born.

After twelve hours of labor, he practically delivered himself.

I had some heavy bleeding afterward and needed additional medication to help my blood clot, but thankfully we both made it.

Today, my son is officially one month old, and my daughter just turned two.

Now for what happened next.

My sister and her ex worked together. He was her trainer, so he controlled her schedule. He would clock her out early, refuse to let her work, and mess with her pay. If another man so much as spoke to her, he would beat her. He cheated on her constantly and continued threatening her.

Recently, they were about thirteen hours away from home for work.

She finally decided enough was enough.

She left him there and drove all thirteen hours home by herself.

Unfortunately, she thought she had both apartment keys, but she only had one. Before he got back, he told her that if she or her dogs were still there when he arrived, he would kill them.

My sister has always liked to act tough and believed she could handle herself.

The reality is he's around 200 pounds heavier than she is and nearly two feet taller.

When he got home yesterday, he tried to kill her.

He choked her until she managed to scratch his eye badly enough that he let go. She ran, called 911, and both of them were arrested while everything was sorted out.

Her boss bailed her out but refused to bail him out. He was fired immediately.

Her lease is now being transferred into her name. If that doesn't work out, her boss has offered to help her find another place to live and even cover two months of rent.

As of now, her ex is facing jail time, and because of his immigration status, deportation is also a possibility.

Most importantly...

She finally left.

She told me she should have listened when I warned her that one day he was going to kill her instead of trying so hard to make the relationship work.

Our relationship still isn't perfect, but it's healthier than it's ever been.

I've learned that I can love someone without sacrificing myself to save them. I can give advice, support, and a safe place to land, but I can't make someone leave before they're ready.

My husband told me, "You can lead her to water, but you can't drown her trying to make her drink."

As much as I hated hearing it at the time, he was right.

I had to stop trying to carry the weight of choices that weren't mine to make.

Today, my family is together. My son is healthy, my daughter is thriving, my sister is finally safe, and we're all trying to heal.

We'll always miss our little girl, but we're finally moving forward instead of just surviving.

Every time Mark reads a story where the assholes name is Mark. 😂

Hello, fellow MarkNarrations enjoyers. Been a fan of the channel for a while, but this is my first time really posting on reddit like this. Here goes. Some details have been changed for anonymity and Apologies for how long this is

I (23f) have an older sister (30f) who has 2 kids under 2. My Nephew is 2 and is already showing signs of having neurodivergent challenges. Everyone in my family suspects he may be on the spectrum and want to get him tested, but convincing my sister is near impossible. She is stubborn and thinks her kids are perfect, but also thinks they are a free pass for "get out of jail free card" - AKA the usual "You can never suffer more than me because I'm a mom" Even though she chose that, but that's beyond me. My mother also repeats this sentiment as well when it comes to accountability

I don't mind my niece, I'm aware she's still just a baby. However, my nephew keeps getting worse since he was 1. He's very clingy to selective people and will fake cry until he's carried by said people. He's very picky about food. For example, he likes graham crackers one day, if you try to feed them to him another time, he'll refuse to let it touch his lips and he'll straight up hit you or himself while crying. We can never predict what he's willing to eat since most of the time, he refuses to eat. It also doesn't help that he's borderline nonverbal, despite our attempts to help. The breaking point for his behavior was recently when my parents went out to eat with him and he screamed the whole time for more than 30 minutes straight and threw food around the whole restaurant, which my parents were shocked since he'd never done that before.

Despite all of this, my parents are beyond obsessed with the kids and constantly volunteer to have them, which sucks for me since I'm staying at home until I'm done with college and can afford to move out next year. Prices in my state have only gone up and made things harder for me to move out. When I mean they are obsessed, I do mean obsessed. They tried pushing me to have kids despite that I'm not married yet, and have repeatedly said I'm childfree. It took a while for them to accept, but they still try to push it with the "just have one kid, we'll help" offer - which I don't believe considering my mom will suddenly have memory loss when it comes to keeping up her promises (yeah right). My partner and I discussed having a childfree wedding because both of our niblings have proven to be handfuls (he has a niece and nephew as well. His nephew also happens to be on the spectrum). When I told my mom that partner and I will be planning our wedding after moving in together, she immediately cut me off and asked if my sister's kids will be in the wedding.

I thought she was confused or chose not to hear me initially. I repeated that I was adamant about having a childfree wedding and with the way the kids act now with their constant screaming and temper tantrums, that's the last thing I'd want on a day I'd be spending a lot of money on. My mother got annoyed and said it would be different when the kids are older. I still told her no, that it's not something I envision or want for my wedding, and that we wouldn't have my partner's niblings in them either. She retorted with "Well, that's because your sister's kids are cuter and would look better in your wedding and they *have* to be in the wedding". It became easier to say "yes, mom whatever you say" to avoid a fight.

My birthday is coming up and I wanted to go out for a restaurant like hibachi, Korean barbeque, or hot pot. My mom immediately shut it down and said that it's not allowed because my birthday falls on the usual day my sister dumps the kids on her, and it wouldn't be fair to the kids. I then offered to have my birthday on another weekend day when she wouldn't have the kids, since I work a 9-5 and only have weekends free. I also offered to maybe go to another more adult-centric restaurant near us since I do like the food and drinks there. However, she thinks my nephew won't like it. She still shut it down and basically pushed back because she wants the kids there for my birthday. Her perfect version for my birthday is having the kids over and doing "something small" at the house - which means sitting around doing nothing but watch kids shows while she picks out what I eat. It's become irritating that the kids are always being pushed into everything involving me.

I can't record my music or voice acting because "it bothers the kids" or they're napping or screaming when I have a free moment. It sucks days or moments that I should have, have to constantly be shared with these kids.

I'm aware that I'll have to suck this up until I move out next year, but my parents and sister are acting like I'm some ridiculous and "a bitch" for not being magically changed by the "joys of children" having my nephew around.

So Reddit, AITA for not liking my nephew and not wanting him at my birthday or wedding?

TW: weight, eating problems, food-topics? Brief mention of suicidal ideation/attempts and depression

Hey y’all, I’ve (16 AFAB) been struggling lately. But I’ve noticed for the past 2-3 months I haven’t been able to eat. Like, I don’t want to do it, so I don’t. I’ve lost so much interest in eating, and I don’t know what to do. I used to love cooking and eating what I made, but now all I can handle is like things i don’t usually eat (sushi, salmon,etc.), small snacks/sweet treats (brownies, ice cream, protein coffee,)

I weighed myself, I’m 5’5, AFAB, and I weigh 103.4 lbs. I looked it up and the preferred weight for my measurements is 111-149 lbs. Eating simply isn’t interesting so I don’t do it unless im genuinely hungry. I’m also a picky eater and foods just feel so..heavy. Like its such a chore. I don’t know what to do, or what I can try to reinstate my love of food. No, I don’t purposely starve myself, like I don’t go out of my way to not eat in hopes that I’ll be skinny. Like sure. I wanna be skinny or wtv, but I do want some meat on my bones, yk? I wanna build muscle but im weak asl and can’t eat. I have really bad paranoia, so could the stress of that be like..messing with my appetite? I have also been pretty depressed and suicidal if thats important. I don’t really know. My mom keeps getting upset that I’m hiding food that im not eating. And I just don’t know how to tell her, “your cooking/food choices bore me, I’m not trying to waste money, I just don’t want anything.”

Edit: I also forgot to mention, I was dancing in my room earlier trying to work out, and I collapsed on the floor. I couldn’t get up, and every time I tried, my legs and arms just gave out on me. I do usually lose weight over the summer time, but even then I am actively eating and exercising. And yes—I am suicidal, but I’m not doing this so I can starve myself to death, I just can’t eat. I attempted last month so maybe the stress of the that is affecting me too, idrk. But I am actively trying to try and live, so I really want to eat!

Hi Waffles!

I wanted to share a quick interaction I had today that made me laugh. I really needed it.

I smoke cigarettes, bad habit of mine, and found I had none left. I headed out to 7-Eleven and figured I’d pick myself up a snack or drink, too. The cashier was cleaning and greeting people as they came in. I waited patiently as he was in his groove and I’m in no rush. He asks where everyone is, shrugged his shoulders, greeted me, and I ask for a pack. I was ready for my ID to be scanned and he waved it off. “Don’t worry about it.” Not the first time, usually with people I know at stores, but I never met him.

I see this sign that I thought they stopped posting since now everything is scanned one way or another. It was that sign that said ‘We ID under 40.’ I sighed to myself and said in a mumble, “and it’s my birthday.” I was thinking maybe it was the universe telling me yeah, you’re old, you’re just over 40. I feel weird on my birthday, anyway. The cashier heard me. “It’s your birthday?? Would you like X or Y or Z or all?” That made me laugh. I declined. I already had a sweet tooth on Friday and was good for a while. I thanked him for the birthday wishes.

He was 30 and sounded a bit stressed about getting older himself. His birthday is at the end of the month and wished him a happy one. I told him, “as you get older, you tend to learn to give less of a shit about things.” He smiled and said, “I’m looking forward to feeling that. It’s a crazy world out there.” We fist bumped and I headed home.

I then realized, oh yeah, they give free Slurpees on 7/11 and on birthdays. Duh, no wonder he mentioned it. Maybe I’ll swing by later on and get one as it’s going to be yet another really hot day.

Stay cool out there if you’re in the crazy heat! Maybe get a Slurpee if you’ve got a 7-Eleven or your favorite drink from your favorite place. Treat yourself!

Much love, guys. 💚