Parents using children because they can

I worked at my mom's bakery and hated it, but she convinced me to stay because "it's my job". I told her I wanted to do something more with my life and she ignored me, then I noticed something very telling...

One day I was standing near her register when a customer came in and she told them, with a big fake smile, "Both my kids work for me, it's been a great way to teach them entrepreneurial skills.." And whatever other scripted lies she repeats to make herself look better.

I saw that and knew that this must go on every day in her mind: building excuses for using her kids to benefit herself. She wants her business up and running, she doesn't want to make all the baked goods, or drive the deliveries. She's sacrificing her children, robbing them of their own individual path and purpose, to build her dream for her. She wants to be a boss. Manipulating family is easier than strangers.

In my family, you don't matter. Being an offspring meana that you are a tool the adults get to use to use for free. If you don't understand manipulation, that's on you, it's not their fault. You're probably lazy anyways, and them controlling you is for your own good.

In other words, I feel like I'm worthless outside of what I contribute. Who I am is irrelevant. The things I do and say are noise, burdening the air, until they serve the family somehow. The more money I make, the more I belong.