What do you do with shitty parents?

Hello, I am 30F, Chinese currently living in Belgium since a year ago. Here I am writing my life story( about my parents, to keep it short lol) to you all for the first time on online platform. Wish whoever read my story, maybe find life in a different perspective, if you have similar experiences, I hope you and I will find peace in our lives no matter what.

I was born in a poor village and my parents dont have any good education except for elementary school education. I grew up in an environment where I had to help my parents little store to open and close till 10 or 12pm depending on how late the last customer gonna stay, or when my father told me to do so. I serve as a waitress in the tiny restaurant since 9, clean the floor, prepare for food, wash dishes, collect cash from customers and if I count wrong, may get a slap. I told them I am tired and I want to go to sleep and the school next day has exams, they don’t care. If I leave and go to bed up in the attic, they will get super mad and hit me too. Each morning I woke up and I try to tell my mom can you please go with me to ask papa so I can have some breakfast money to buy a bread on the way, and maybe I can buy milk too because I really want to drink something,nope! Each day I hope I can fly far away. During winter time it is worse, I have frostbite each year and I ask them for more clothing and they say you have cloth… at age of 12 I left to go to boarding school, for the next six years I studied hard so I don’t have to go back to the village. Each time they call and ask me to come home to help, I know it will be harder than studying…( my brother was born so it was worse after 12, as soon as my brother is born, I am 2x the servant during weekend when I came back from boarding school, I had to do a lot of motherly stuffs and I was not allowed to eat meat because they prepare it onky for my brother, they say it openly and use chopsticks to push my chopsticks away. Things like this or something worse, sometimes hungry, sometimes hit by them when they think I should babysit this way instesd of that way, I don’t have grudges against my brother so I never did anything wrong or bad from my own view. A yeat later after he was born, he couldn’t crawl or sit properly so the they rush to the best hospital in the big city, my brother has sever autism and some brain damage as well, probably I think it has sth to do with my mom was hit by my father also even during pregnancy and was kneeling down to do some lifting or cleaning while I was at school, so, he is disabled and still today can’t speak or understand anything at 20 years old age. ) three years ago,I went to the states to get my master degree wuth the help my boyfriend at that time, he and I met during college in China and he is a bit older than me, so he has some money to support me, he is very kind to me and does not expect return, so I decided to marry him after I graduated from usa, he was with me working in the same states as well, so we moved in together and we had beautiful a daughter soon after. During those years in the usa, I have daily nightmares about the fights and abuse and and stuffs wuth my childhood that kept me awake till 3 am 4 am etc, I did sports and try not to think about it and I also got scholarship and finished my engineering master in just one yeat so I can save money. My dad and mom called me many times, I never pick up. He would text, those texts are essentially me not kind and a bitch daughter who turn back on her family who raised her with great efforts, and call me a slut, etc. one day when I was finishing my job ( an internship right after graduation, not much money to spare anyway) he asked for money, saying he wants to decorate the apartment he bought, which I never knew because he claimed we don’t have money so you have to find another way to support your study. Later I still send him money (10k in total ). Later I realized they just think I am someone who is their ATM. Which I understand in Chinese culture, but this is too much for me, I never get asked how is my work, how is my life. I am not really upset with the money I gave , but the fact that they always lie to get what they want, even to their daughter, i longed for parnets who laugh with their kids and buy them cloths that are warm enough, ask if their kid is happy, what they can do for the kid, how they can provide for the kid.
Now I am in Europe where my husband home is, and I no longer have much nightmares, still I wonder, should I just keep ignoring them?( I deleted their contact two years ago after baby born)where will my life go with this kind of parents? But, I just tell myself, life is busy with a little toddler and I am happy that our family is healthy and I hope my daughter is happy with the way I raise her. Thanks for reading, I think this might be the longest post on Reddit lol. Sorry about that.

Posted Oct 11, 2025, 7:34 PM UTC

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