Dawn Vickerstaff
2 min readFeb 22, 2023

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Well, none of these things described my parents. None. Including the one about not talking negatively to a sibling about their sibling. I never heard anything positive about who I was and I was told just how I thought about anything and everything. As a consequence, I didn't know what I thought about anything until well into adulthood. I used to have to check with myself 'Do you feel this way about that? Or do you really feel that way about this?' I have a terrible relationship with my brothers. Actually, I have no relationship with them at all. They'd rather emulate my step-father (and my mother) by sneering at me, disrespecting my boundaries and my belongings or saying ugly, cruel and mean-spirited things under the guise of 'joking'. I used to ask my mother if she loved me. Her answer was to be annoyed, 'don't be silly'. My mother chose a daughter-in-law to be her favorite who proceeded to steal all the family heirlooms or worse throw them away because 'they are just junk and we/I can't imagine why you'd want them.' I'm not a child anymore and I have a pretty good life but it took me almost my whole life to get here. I first had to shake off the toxicity that grew out of my parents awful parenting and learn who I truly was. So much effort. Sometimes I wonder at the fact that I am sane (mostly) and that suicidality did not kill me. I think of myself as very, very lucky to have survived. If only my parents had been able to understand even a tenth of what each of your 5 traits mean.

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Dawn Vickerstaff
Dawn Vickerstaff

Written by Dawn Vickerstaff

MSW, Mental Health Therapist, Writer of Truth

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