How do I respond to my mom calling me manipulative?

About a week ago I was doing dishes and accidentally knocked over a glass, trued to catch it and it broke in my hand. I had a few cuts but nothing too bad. Fast forward to this week I still have pain in one of my fingers despite the wound healing so I figured there was glass in my hand. I told my mom about it and she asked how and I explained the glass. My dad overheard the conversation and goes ‘you broke a glass?’ in like a stern tone. I start getting anxious as I was putting off mentioning my injury and the broken glass because of this one time I was doing the dishes as a kid and a glass rolled off the drying rack and shattered on the floor. I had my friend over and my dad started yelling at me in front of them saying he would embarrass me and other things.

Anyway that’s a recurring theme in my childhood so naturally I didn’t mention the broken glass until now because of my injury. This led to me getting defensive because they were already getting mad at me again and I tried explaining to them that their reaction was making me anxious and on edge but they kept saying i just wasn’t listening and they were getting angrier. I really don’t react well to yelling and I started crying and left to sit in the garage so I could calm down. I’m autistic and was having a shutdown. A few minutes later my mom comes in asking for a hug i say no because I really wanted to be alone, then she asks me to go in and do my ‘whatever’ in doors because it’s hot in the garage. I say no again because I really just wanted to be alone and then she left after leaving the garage door open.

I’m just sitting there for a while trying to get myself to calm down and then she comes back again. Asks for a hug again I say no then she goes on to say that she thinks I and my siblings are being manipulative when we react like this because it’s ‘trying to make them feel bad’ and goes on to tell me their actions are from a place of love and I’m not being receptive or communicating well. I didn’t say anything because I was still in shut down mode wasn’t saying anything other than No’s to hugging. She then hugs me anyway and tells me to hug back because it’s hot in makes her feel bad. I don’t really know what to think now my reactions end up like this after days or weeks of constant reprimandations from them from the tiniest mistakes anyone could make and it really wears me down sorry if this text is all over the place i’m still not feeling great I just don’t know how to respond to any of this when i’m called manipulative by my parents it puts me in a position where i’m now the aggressor or my actions are with the intent to make them feel bad which isn’t the case like I would rather not have shutdowns but here we are

Posted Aug 4, 2025, 4:26 PM UTC

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