My parents insist that I don't care about them and I don't know what to do
I don't know what to do about my situation with my parents anymore. I've been home from college for the past two months, and I've been trying to recover from mental health issues. I truly care about my parents and I appreciate what they do for me. But my mother is passive aggressive and has explosive anger sometimes, and my father just wants to ignore every problem.
I try to be as cooperative as possible. I just finished an argument with my mother, because she screamed at me for not washing dishes last night. I spoke very calmly and explained that she started doing the dishes before I'd even gotten a chance to, and I didn't want to interrupt her and offer to finish it in fear that she'd snap at me - which she would've. And she was already slamming the dishes around to show that she was angry, without saying it. I hate conflict, and my mother's anger makes me anxious, so I try to avoid it. I'm almost afraid of her when she's angry. I said I felt awful and I wished I'd gotten the chance to do it before she had, but she just rolled her eyes and yelled more. She made me feel guilty, claiming that my younger brother and I don't care about them.
As much as I dislike chores, I never mind doing them to help. The problem is that they don't ask me to do things, and they expect me to know what needs me to be done and when. It may not sound difficult, but my parents' passive aggressiveness and lack of communication make it challenging. They insist that if I really cared about them, then I'd do everything without a reminder. I've offered to do the dishes every night after dinner, but that doesn't work for them because they want it done whenever they decide it's time, which could be any time of the day. To avoid any potential conflict with my family, I tend to stay in my room all the time, but then I don't know when they want me to wash the dishes. I wish they'd tell me when they want me to do it, so I wouldn't have to worry. I don't see why they can't just tell me when they want something done - it would be so much easier for everyone. Less stress for them, and I wouldn't have to worry about disappointing them. I want to help, but they're so specific about when things should be done so I never know what to do.
The whole argument - which I wanted to be a calm conversation, instead of her screaming at me while I tried to defend myself - ended with me in tears, asking her to just talk to me calmly and accept my apologies. She ignored me.
I really want to try to have a good relationship with my parents, but I don't know how. My mental health causes me to have no motivation. I can barely get out of bed, and my medication makes me tired no matter how much I sleep. I can't control any of that, and my parents hold that against me by saying that I'm obviously lazy since I sleep too much.
I've begged them to just ask me to do whatever they need, whenever, and I'll do it, even if I feel tired. I WANT to help. I offer to do tasks that I know they hate doing, to make it easier for them. They just won't listen to me when I try to resolve things. Any advice? I feel like it's almost a hopeless situation.
Posted Jul 21, 2017, 9:52 PM UTC · edited