You had me until “I’m all about victim blaming in some circumstances.” I’m afraid to ask which circumstances.

Empathy and perspective aren’t your things, huh.

ISNT THAT THE BEST? “Just let it go.” “Get over it.” “You’re so sensitive.” “No parent is perfect.” “I can’t help that you were just an antisocial child.” “You never talk about all the good things we did.” “You’re lucky, I didn’t have x,y, and z when I was growing up.” “Everything is always ‘traumatic’ for you isn’t…

I think a lot of people do a lot of othering (only certain types of people are abusive, not the kinds of people I spend time with) that lets them think child abuse is rare and far away rather than in their friend’s/cousin’s/sister’s home, and that it looks one certain way.

Man can we get margaritas and talk about our shitty childhoods??

Thank you. Abusive parents aren’t likely to change because you indicate they’re doing something wrong. Also as a minor you have zero agency. I completely get why he would run away. I need to be a more patient person but it really irritates me when people just really can’t wrap their minds around abuse.

YES. And r/CPTSD.

This post is honestly bringing it all back. Yeah, it’s crazy how they can push you to the brink and then make your reactions seem disproportionate. They do stuff (like kicking you out) and then laugh or criticize because you believed that they really meant it. Like...yeah, how crazy for a kid to believe their parent?…

I hear “only talked to his mother and on his own terms” as “trying to protect himself from a lifetime of possible abuse and boundary violations” but ymmv.

I could maybe understand him leaving if his father was abusive, but then he could have left and just notified his mother about any abuse he suffered.

srsly, he was hiding from his “strict” dad....and a relative who he was in contact with on the sly (probably a sibling or cousin) warned him he was about to be trapped by his dad and the law.

This is probably because I’m from a pretty close-knit family, but I never understood people who just get up and leave town without notifying those who they *know* will worry about them.

Absolutely the same. I did run away as a teen (well, I got kicked out, but I think my parents expected me to be waiting on the front doorstep the next morning, and instead I just walked away) and was homeless for a few months (including sleeping rough for a bit, but mostly crashing on different people’s couches). It…

For everyone that’s asking why or how, there’s something going on behind the scenes.

Yep, all that about very controlling was setting off alarm bells. The South already trends authoritarian so to be considered extra controlling made me side eye this whole thing.

At that same age, if I could have run away I would. What was stopping me was that I knew I was too young and too poor to survive without doing things I didn’t want to do, and I also loved most of my family. I almost ran across the country to my grandmother’s house, but she lived in a seniors area and I wouldn’t have…

As someone who had psychologically unstable, extremely controlling/abusive parents, I get why he just fucked off into the night

Nope. I’m on the kid’s side. He saw a situation that was going south quickly, realized his dad was about to throw a MAGA hat on, and said “nah, I’m out.” People can call him selfish and a horrible little shit, new age hippy dippy whatever but at least he had the courage to get the fuck out of what sounds like a…

This is what I was thinking–how awful for the parents. But if a kid leaves home at 15-freaking-years-old, does not come back, and doesn’t even do the payphone “I’m safe, but I’m not coming back,” it says a lot about what he was leaving behind.

I admire you, profusely. 😘