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Many of us, myself included, come from a dysfunctional family which adds a lot of weight to the challenges of caregiving. I have read stores on various threads on other topics and decided it would be good to have a thread just for this topic for people to share, vent and discuss.

The idea for this thread originated on the thread named "The Caregiver....How are YOU doing today?"

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🥰 today’s words of wisdom:

The next time someone is verbally abusive/toxic to you, ask them:

if they need to take a break so they can get a snack and calm down. 
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Blick, I agree with others her, my mom is a horrible micro manager.

When my father died , my sister was doing the deep cleaning, I was doing the errands, appointments, and the everyday thing, like garbage.

My sister, disappeared ( now completely understandable) mom thought I was going to do the deeper cleaning. I told her straight up I'll clean what ever you want if you want to go watch Hallmark, and I'll happily "have at it" she did not like that one tiny bit! And that solved that issue, she never asked again.

But that didn't change her other manipulative control ways. Just the one issue. I thought I was setting boundaries and I was but they just find other ways to manage you. So watch out for the sneaky covert games
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blickbob,

Move the office supplies out of the room .
When Mom balks , too bad . Look at it as an exercise for you , to stand up to her .

You can leave her some writing paper if she uses it . But don’t bring her envelopes . You take whatever she writes that she wants mailed out of the room and you take care of the envelope without her input .

Ignore her ranting .
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Bob - have you given up on your dreams? I agree with venting and will add to "She's not thinking about what is best for YOU" that you are not thinking what is best for you either,
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Hi Blickbob,

"I should also note she doesn't like how I staple things or how I'll paperclip things. I opt to have the staples going horizontal and she wants them going on the diagonal. I mean, does it make THAT much of a difference?"

You realize you two sound like an old, bickering couple?...
It's like you're married to your mom.

As Bundle of Joy 🙂 recently wrote, when will your life belong to YOU?
That is up to you.
Until then, the two of you will continue to be like an old, bickering married couple...

She'll continue sucking years out of your life. She's not thinking about what is best for YOU.
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@golden23

The room she's stuck in is the room with the office supplies and box of blank envelopes and she watched me do everything. I didn't have too much of a choice. I did put my foot down regarding the 2nd envelope and she let it go.

I should also note she doesn't like how I staple things or how I'll paperclip things. I opt to have the staples going horizontal and she wants them going on the diagonal. I mean, does it make THAT much of a difference?
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bob - why did you do it the second time? There comes a point to say "No" to unreasonable demands. So she gets mad. So what? Walk away so you can't hear her. Some things have to be on your terms, not always on hers.
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Blickbod, I hear you!!

Why, oh why do they get like this?!?!

Maybe it's natures why so we are not so heartbroken. 🤔🤷
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Last night, my mom had me fill out a blank envelope that was mailed to our insurance agency earlier today. I filled it out perfectly well, but she criticized me and made me fill out another one because I addressed the envelope a 100th of a inch too high.

I then filled out the 2nd one. Everything was positioned to her liking, but got on me for my handwriting. She said my Ss looked like squiggles and they didn't look anywhere close to that. It was perfectly legible, but that didn't stop the criticism and like she did the other night following her criticism of writing her cheat sheet, she went on about italic calligraphy and had me google italic calligraphy. I have perfect handwriting. It's not like I have chicken scratch for handwriting. Plus, the insurance people aren't gonna care about my handwriting on the envelope. All they want is the check inside the envelope.

Stuff like that is why you have cases of adult children completely cutting off their parents and going NC with them.
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Love this from Bundle of Joy

“You can’t build with someone who isn’t trying to help you carry the bricks.”
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🥰 some more wisdom:

"When does your life belong to YOU?"
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Love all of that! 😍
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An optimistic quote for today:

🥰 “Hang in there. It is astonishing how short a time it can take for a very wonderful thing to happen.”
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The 3 stages of life:
1. Wanting stuff
2. Accumulating stuff
3. Getting rid of stuff

——
🙂🙂 a friend of mine pointed out that this applies to people, too:

The 3 stages of life:
1. Wanting people
2. Accumulating people
3. Getting rid of people
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🥰 more wisdom:

“Sometimes people come into your life and they need to stop doing that.”
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🥰 more words of wisdom:

“Without freedom of speech, we would not know who the idiots are.”
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today’s words of wisdom:

“Beware of people who are in your circle but not in your corner.”
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how to deal with toxic/dysfunctional people:

🥰 “I’m a very nice person, but for you I’ll make an exception.”
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Of course Mom said she doesn't want me to get covid, because of she gets really sick I won't be able to help her. 😂 Got love the love, we all get back from are loved ones.

Anyways I told her if I do or don't get it, it won't matter, she is still going to need more help, with or without me.
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🥰 today’s words of wisdom:

“You can’t build with someone who isn’t trying to help you carry the bricks.”
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Older brother, was trying to get me to have a better relationship with younger brother, last night.

I told him bottom line, YB has no respect for me and I have no interest in having a relationship with someone that has no respect for me and wants to be glorified.

OB and me are so different in many ways, but we always respect each other.

He understood it, and said yeah he he acts, looks, stands, just like are father. I felt validated and understood. Which is nice!
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Blikbob, I have to admit I'm guilty of that a bit too. I keep getting texts, from the opposite team I'm on , asking for money.

They don't stop. I block them, I ignore them, I say please stop, and then resorted to saying not nice things. 😆, but nothing stops them, from texting me .

It's almost over! Elections are coming quick. And hopefully tensions will relax.
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I have a twofer tonight.

Mom wanted me to write down some info big enough for her to read on a piece of notebook paper when she calls one agency regarding instructions for lining up a RMD. I do so and I hand it to her. She's looking at it and, her being the creative one, expressed some criticism over me not staying in-between lines and the info taking up more than half of the page. Chances are, she would've been critical had I written everything on individual lines. It was either write big, covering two lines, or only cover half the page. She wasn't getting both. I mean, she wanted the info for her cheat sheet big enough for her to read and I did what she asked of me.

A little later, she tended to a form she got in the mail from our congressman asking for a political donation. She wrote on the form and told him to ask a politician that shall not be named for money instead of her. She said she did it over disagreement over a piece of legislation. I thought it was a classless move and like with a couple of other forms asking for donations she wrote snarky remarks on of late, I did what should've been done the moment we got done looking through the mail the other day and threw it in the trash. I mean, they were gonna get thrown away once they arrived at their campaign locations anyway. And I'm not telling her I threw those things away. She told me she was expressing her opinion and I almost wanted to openly tell her to do it in a way that wasn't classless. There are far, far worser cases of classlessness out there, but still.

She got semi-emotional and told me "I don't get in your business." And I thought to myself "yeah, and you like to drag me into YOUR business and turn YOUR problems into MY problems. Plus, she was talking about some political posts I liked and commented on on FB from long-time friends of hers while we were talking not too long ago, disagreeing with the posts.

Can you say hypocrite?
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Here's toxic advice about living with a hoarder from a hoarder.

"Just let her do it, let her be happy shopping and pay the credit bill, live in a hoarding house. You only live once."

I actually read this one today.
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🥰 today’s words of wisdom against toxic/dysfunctional people:

🙂 🙂 "I envy all the people who have never met you."
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When you leave the “wrong people” behind, the right things start happening.
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…Sometimes “gosh darn” and “meanie head” just don’t cut it.
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today’s words of wisdom
(i gotta apply that to myself, too)

🥰 “If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down.”
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One symptom of narcolepsy is insomnia.

I wear my smartwatch almost every night. I added up the nights on 
which I slept for 6 hours or more from Jan 1 until yesterday. The 
results were that I only slept an average of 6.85 hours on 29 of 
those days which I slept for at least 6 hours over the past almost 9 months. 

I'm sending this to my neurologist, my PC who I see tomorrow and maybe my
endocrinologist.
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I'm so sorry Yoda!! 😞 Best of luck get that all figured out.
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