Yah... my mom would always try to get me to talk to her and be open when I was a teen, and saying that would get me more freedom... but the times I did that, it just got thrown back in my face later. Not good parenting.

You have just described my husband. It is so sad how woefully unprepared for real life his parents left him.

I’m sorry you went through that. I can’t help but wonder why they would go through so much hassle to adopt you in the first place.

I hope things in life are good for you now, as that was a lot to deal with as a kid. I have some experience in the type of situation you were in, but from a slightly different angle. I wont ramble on about it, but there are good people in the world.

I hope you know that what happened to you wasn’t ok at all and I hope parents reading lifehacker are not abusive shits to their children.

Yeah - most of these rules only work in a normal household. People who grew up in toxic/abusive families learned how to lie for self preservation. And a lot of us got -really- good at it.

This was my parents’ approach, and between that and their very overbearing approach everywhere else, I have grown up to be hyper-vigilant, prone to being sneaky, and really quite good at lying just enough to get out of trouble. Which, it turns out, are actually pretty useful in navigating the working world, and really…

yeah, some people shouldn't have kids. I am glad to see you made it okay. I had it slightly better than you. good luck in your future endeavors, like my therapist told me, if you survived that, you can survive anything.

I had my daughter read the draft of this post before it went up, as I usually have her do when she’s mentioned in my writing. She thinks the article’s fine but would like to add that she really did brush her teeth and try to sleep in those instances. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sorry to hear that. I feel your pain. I never had a childhood either for similar reasons... or let’s just say, I had a childhood filled with beatings and being told I was the ‘sacrifice’ SHE had to make to have peace in her life.

Given that the most notable moment of the one of the Democratic campaign has been the candidate calling for a move to the metric system, I would think not.

I’m talking as someone who taught high school and failed students (for plagiarism). The response from the students and parents was... intense.

My favorite lesson was “Work smarter, not harder” from Duck Tales. Nice and easy for a simpleton like me!

Attack on Titan games should must be multiplayer. It’s the whole idea of the show.

When I read this I thought, “ah bullshit” then I mulled it over and realized, yep, exactly right. That’s exactly why I’m not “successful.” I don’t give a shit about being successful. What I should really do is redefine success for myself and start giving a shit. It may be ignorance or apathy, but I don’t know and I…

Is that what it is?

While it is rumored that David killed Goliath with a day-old bagel, I find that wrapping one in a damp paper towel and microwaving it for 30 seconds makes a slightly stale bagel edible once more. And if you buy your bagels in a plastic bag (or worse yet frozen), in my opinion you are shopping for bagels in the wrong…