I feel like my family is taking advantage of me and my boyfriend
I’m 23 and my boyfriend is 33. He’s stable and has a good career. We’ve been talking about starting a family soon. I have a good job too but I still live with my family because I’m the main caregiver for my little brother. There are 5 kids total and I’m the one who cooks cleans and handles everything.
Anytime I talk about leaving they guilt trip me. They say I’ll forget them or that I’m abandoning them. I even thought about us all living on the same land but in separate houses just so I wouldn’t feel so bad.
My boyfriend has helped them a lot. He gave my dad 3000 dollars for a trip for me but my dad kept it. He also gave him money for my car insurance and a Costco card and I never saw those either. My dad even talked badly about him after he opened up about personal stuff. Saying “oh a real man doesn’t type in paragraphs like this” and that was after he gave money to help me and bought stuff from my dad’s business to support him.
I feel stuck. I know what I want but it’s hard to break away without hurting the people I love. I don’t know what to do.
TLDR: I care for my siblings and live with my family who guilt trip me when I talk about leaving. They’ve also taken money from my boyfriend that was meant to help me. I feel stuck and don’t know how to move forward.
Posted Aug 7, 2025, 12:59 AM UTC