AIO Wanting to Give my Parents an Ultimatum

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦family/in-laws

Coming here bc I’m getting ignored by friends while trying to vent abt this. Would I be overreacting if I tell my parents they either get marriage counseling or I move out?

I(18F) live with my parents (50f, 53m) and for as long as I can remember they’ve had an unhealthy marriage and fought constantly. I was constantly trying to do what I could to get them to stay together and I’ve been begging them to get counseling since I was around 10 but they refuse. My mom says that my dad wouldn’t and that “they’re fine, they wouldn’t even get picked up by a therapist because their case is so mild”. My dad on the other hand says he would be willing for me but that my mom is too stubborn to make progress, aka just excuses. To paint a photo of how bad their fighting was, constantly hearing them scream and curse at eachother and slam doors was normal, my dad would constantly walk out to cool down and I never knew if he would come back. In middle school my mom said she was done, packed a suitcase, and left before coming back a few hours later like nothing happened. That was the worst day of my life I remember her calling 12yr old me a bitch and thinking it was my fault I no longer had a mom and she still refuses to apologize about that to this day. My friends from class would literally place divorce bets on my parents and I had already planned out my custody schedule and who I wanted to live with. At 13 I tried to book a counseling appointment for them but gave up when I realized I didn’t have the information I needed for their forms and had no idea what I was doing. Looking back I wonder what would have happened if I called them trying to book the appointment. Would there have been an intervention? At 14 I had created a little soundproof nook in my closet where I would hide in when the fighting started, it became my routine. Loud noises? Closet time. Finally my junior year they got their shit together but only because I was in the mental hospital and my mom got insanely sick from a surgery gone wrong.

Needless to say I am not well mentally because of this, I have severe trust and abandonment issues along with a history of depression and anxiety, which they both refuse to acknowledge are due to the fighting. Anyways we got about a year of peace before they started fighting again and they have not spoken a word to eachother all weekend, instead my mom is using me as the middle man to try to guilt trip my dad.

I am done. I cannot deal with this shit anymore. I genuinely do not think I can survive in this house anymore unless something changes. I need them to realize the impact of their actions on me. I’ve decided that either they get counseling or I go. I am disabled and don’t have a job outside of side gigs but I have enough savings that I could get a small apartment or room and am looking into jobs now. I am working on getting my AS but i go to community college so I can afford to keep going for the next three semesters as long as I budget tight. I would not however be able to bring my lizard or ES Cat and give them the life they deserve so that’s what’s keeping me at home. I would not be living luxuriously, only basic necessities IF that but it would be significantly better for my sanity. I’m going to research more about apartments in my area along with couples counseling. Also going to reach out to my therapist to see if she knows of anyone in the area. I’m going to present them the decision, then see if they’ll grow up and accept help or if they’d prefer to lose me.

Am I being dramatic? Am I going nuclear? Is there a less harsh way to solve this???

Posted Dec 8, 2025, 3:32 AM UTC

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