My adoptive parents are messed up and it took 15 years to realized that
So me and my older sibling were in the foster care system when I was 4 years old and I was in this particular family took us in and adopted me and my sibling when I was 8. I don’t remember much as a child it’s just fragments of memories up until I was a 5th grader (I use grades to help me with keeping track of time) and I remember my adoptive parents comparing me to my sibling by saying stuff like “Don’t be like (sibling)” or “You’re just like (sibling)” which made me go into such a panic that I basically started to hallucinate things DURING my panic attacks… and I thought this was normal behaviour. So I was talking to some of my friends during high school and literally all of them agreed that it was NOT normal. Somehow my parents found out that I was talking about them poorly and basically lecture me on it. I barely remember it but I just avoided all topics on home life or completely lie saying “It’s good”. There was this time where I wanted to do theatre but I couldn’t do theatre because “We don’t want you to be like your (sibling)” so I just cried when I was alone. The only teacher I know that knows this was my old IEP teacher and they were mad at my parents but didn’t tell them because we both knew that it would be worse if they knew. My parents never actually taught me skills I need for real life such as driving, cooking, or even cleaning (like deep cleaning). And it’s not like I didn’t want to know these skills, I’ve expressed that I want to know so I can be successful! And their response for the driving part “You need a job and keep the job for a year before we consider buying you a car” meanwhile they have 3 motorcycles 1 car in their name and even more vehicles that they are co signer for their children THEY birthed! And any time I complain about how I’ve been searching, since I was 16, for a nearby job, that I can walk to in 115F weather, doesn’t want to hire me and their response is “You just gotta keep looking”. At this point I want to run away but I physically cannot afford to do that! And no one wants to have me in their home for free, not even my parents, and they even said to me “I’m not gonna kick you out because you can’t survive on your own” which is true but I want to learn self sufficiency but they are not willing to teach me because “They are not required to do that”. I’m just venting here because I don’t feel safe doing it anywhere else.
Posted Jul 11, 2026, 9:02 PM UTC