The original post: /r/amitheasshole by /u/Professional_Tour395 on 2024-09-24 18:35:02.

My (m25) parents divorced when I was 10 and my sisters were 9 and 5. We used to live a very comfortable life because of my father’s job and generational wealth but my mom was and is a proud woman so she refused to take anything from him. No property, no alimony, no child support. He was happy to completely f out of our lives.

After that, we really struggled. My mom had married my dad at 20 and didn’t even have a college degree. We lived with my grandparents for a while, moved 6 times due to my mom not being able to make rent, we barely saw her because she worked three jobs and just had enough for basic necessities. Growing up I didn’t think I’d be able to go to college and would have to work to support my family straight out of school but my mom pretty much forced me to go. It wasn’t till I was 19 that my mom finally started moving up in a steady job and shifted up a few tax brackets.

It’s not like I don’t think she did her best or am unappreciative of all she did for us. But I do feel like we suffered a lot unnecessarily just for her pride. We could’ve grown up so much happier if my mom didn’t make us collateral damage in her fight with our father. This is something that I mentioned to her when we were having an emotional conversation two days ago and it made her cry. I didn’t want to hurt her, I was just sharing what I felt, but she was so upset she said she needed time to process that. (Regardless of whether I was right or wrong I do think this was an overreaction)

My sisters think I need to apologize but I don’t. I didn’t want to hurt her, and I don’t resent her for this but I shared my truth with her and she had no reason to be this upset.