Parents Who Cut Off All Contact With Their Adult Children Break Down Why They Did It
All parents want to support their children.
Of course, when they grow up and fly the coop, they can't always help them out of every pickle.
But every so often, when their children find themselves in a bad place or are struggling financially or emotionally, most parents will help their children out without a second thought.
Until that is, their children begin to take advantage of their generosity or find themselves getting into trouble a little too often.
It's situations like these where sadly, the best thing parents can do to help their children, is to cut ties, either temporarily, or in extreme cases, permanently.
"Parents who have gone No Contact with your adult children, what happened?"
Substance Abuse
"Sigh."
"He’s an addict who kept stealing from me."
"I had to draw a line."- Readsumthing
"I went no contact with my daughter."
"She had serious drug and alcohol issues."
"I had to lock up my prescription meds."
"She was also mentally ill but refused to take meds to treat it."
"Illicit pills."
"Yeehaw."
"Prescribed pills."
"Nope not gonna take them."
"I finally drew the line when she threw my suitcase at me while visiting her and threatening to kill me."- KrankySilverFox
Untenable Demands
"Our mentally ill son told us we had to do exactly what he told us to do (and could not push back on his requests or even explain our point of view), or we would never see our grandson."
"It was emotional terrorism."
"We told him those conditions were unacceptable to us, and he went no contact."
"Shortly thereafter, his wife divorced him, won custody, and encouraged us to continue building a relationship with our grandson."
"Today, our son wonders why we will not come to family events (and just 'ignore each other') when he is around."
"He set clear boundaries (no contact), and we still believe in respecting those boundaries until he tells us otherwise."- nielsondc
Rocky Relationships
"My brother basically has no contact with my parents."
"Basically it boils down to him getting divorced and remarried after 20 years and then demanding they never talk to the ex ever again (they got along well) and immediately accept and shower the new wife with love and affection even though the first couple interactions were her telling them how crappy they were as parents and how they didn’t love him."- Hopeful-Translator70
"So, I’ll tell this as a third party."
"My wife’s mother and her sister had a falling out."
"It was a slow burn."
"I’ve been part of the family for close to 25 years now and my wife has told me stories of how her older sister and their mother didn’t get along well."
"Couldn’t tell you who instigated the fights or anything, but my wife told me on many occasions the two of them would get in to shouting matches, objects would get thrown, things like that."
"My mother-in-law, until recent years, could be very difficult to get along with."
"My wife’s sister has a very Alpha, bullheaded personality."
"Not just when dealing with their mother, but you could see it in how she treated her (now ex) husband and their children."
"I’m not certain which straw broke the camels back but their already turbulent relationship was further strained when her sister moved several states away and took the kids with her, virtually never to been seen again."
"It’s been over 10 years since their move and I want to say her sister has come to visit maybe twice?"
"This past Christmas my wife and I went to see her mom and while visiting, her sister was brought up in conversation."
"Her mother said, 'I can tell you, she’ll never step foot in my home again'.”
"But didn’t elaborate."
"I don’t think there was ever anything like drugs or legal troubles involved, only two really dominant, aggressive personalities that clashed virtually every time they met."- Deftallica
Difference In Beliefs
"My wife and I recently made the very painful decision to completely cut all ties with our oldest son because he has become a dangerous believer in that Qanon sh*t."- GlooBloo92
Unworthy Partners
"My grandmother just did this to my aunt. It's because she doesn't approve of her new fiancé."- jdog_014
A Simple Minded Grudge
"My older brother went NC with my dad first."
"Reasons are mostly my brother."
"He's got mental disorders and never went to therapy to fix them."
"Then he went NC with me since my mom enables my brothers toxic behavior."
"Basically sponged off my mom and demanded money from her and my poor mom gave in."
"When my brother had a son, I finally wanted all of us to meet him and reunite (we all live in different states. Bro in Cali, parents in Ohio and Me in Washington)."
"When I paid for everyone tickets to visit me in Washington my brother flipped out since my dad was coming so he went NC on my mom.'
"Again let me emphasize my parents and I have done nothing my brother has very toxic behavior and will hold grudges for million years."
"I truly believe he has undiagnosed autism and he was bullied so badly back in Ohio where we grew up from school he's scorned and blames my parents which isn't their fault."
"Dad pretty much gave up trying and my mom keeps trying especially to see her grandson but my toxic brother keeps us NC."- Wesmom2021
No Reason At All
"My ex went NC with our son."
"He kicked him out of his house when my son turned 18, even though he had medical needs and no job."
"'Dad' called to tell me that he did it, and to strongly recommend that I kick him out, too."
"Not because he had done anything wrong, just because."
"Of course I didn't, because I don't believe children are disposable objects and I couldn't see what he was supposed to learn while living on the streets and eating out of garbage cans."
"They had some sporadic contact after that until his dad remarried and moved out of state."
"Now my ex (thankfully) hasn't called in about 6 years."
"My son still lives we me because he can't work and you can't live off only $1200 in monthly disability payments."
"That man was very toxic and abusive to us and we both have PTSD from living with him."
"Knowing he won't be calling either of us ever again is a huge relief."- Xylorgos
A Lamp
"She was physically violent, lied, threw things at me, stole from me."
"But the final straw was she wanted my lamp and was moving out."
"I said no."
"Left."
"Came back to lamp gone."
"She screams she didn't take it, how dare I accuse of her something she didn't do and called my mother and sisters to complain how I accused her of stealing."
"They called and harassed me about accusing my daughter of stealing and that I needed to apologize."
"A week later, in the garage, in the far corner under a box was the lamp."
"She admitted she did it and I still needed to apologize because she didn't steal it." - Reddit
Cutting off ties with your children, or any family member might feel like an utterly unfathomable thing to do.
Unfortunately, sometimes the first step toward forgiveness and recovery is letting go.
Have you ever had to cut someone out of your life? Let us know in the comments below.
The idiomatic expression of something being a hard pill to swallow is often applied towards the things in life that are hard to accept.
When your confidence is shattered because you're told you're not good enough, or when someone with which you thought you had a good thing going turns out not liking you at all are tough examples.
Early in my career as an actor, I learned very quickly that rejection is more common than actually booking work.
Being passed over because someone else is a better fit for the role is completely understandable, but the harsh reality certainly is not reassuring.
Curious to hear what others would consider difficult to accept in life, Redditor /Snoo-61655 asked:
"What's the hardest pill to swallow?"
Not Being Liked
"Someone can get to know you well, and still not like you."
"This is a bitter pill to swallow."
"Can't win them all. It took a long time for me to understand that it's okay if someone doesn't like me. Remain courteous and continue on with my life surrounded by people who do."
Depression Is Not A Free Pass
"Being depressed is not an excuse to act like a d*ckhead"
"Can confirm. There was a girl in my class a few years ago who was a total a**hole and whenever you called her out on it, she's say 'oh I have depression and anxiety' and fake cries until you give her sympathy (which I never did, making her even angrier)."
Unrequited Love
"She doesn't love you."
"Going through this right now, not sure how I feel! Huge anxiety spike though."
Overlooked For A Promotion
"It's a hard pill to swallow when:"
"A lazy, incompetent coworker gets promoted at work and you're left behind, even though your work is exemplary and you're doing your best to move ahead."
Jobs Are A Two-Way Street
"A harder pill to swallow."
"Bored and underutilized can be mistaken for lazy and incompetent."
"Jobs are two way streets and if it's not working out for you, invest in yourself and work towards finding a new job."
Not Good Enough
"My husband was stuck in one job for years because he refused to kiss a** (it's not his style) and it eventually started to make him really f'king depressed and downright miserable. He also went through around a year or so of interviewing for similar positions where he did GREAT in the interview portion but it always ended up in 'We're going in another direction.' or 'You want too much money.' or 'Sorry we love you but HIRING FREEZE! We can do nothing.'"
"It really f'ked with his head and when a friend offered him a way out, he jumped at it. And it was meh. Not great but not terrible. The SAME friend ended up getting him a different job at another company two years later after he (the friend) had gotten fired from the first job for having cancer and using up too much leave time. And the second time his friend helped him get a job has been a goddamned GODSEND because this company is very 'family forward' and is the ONLY retail store I've ever seen that treats its employees like actual goddamned human beings instead of replaceable robots."
Rough Childhood
"Some people have rough childhoods and a really lousy backstory, but a lot of the misery in your life RIGHT NOW is the result of your own poor decisions and you're the one who has to do something to fix it."
– talidrow
Being The Villain
"That to someone in the world you are the Villain in their story. You can't change their mind about it. You can't try to explain their experience to them because you aren't in their shoes. You could have done something totally normal to you that was horror to them and you can't change their mind nor should you try. Its just something you have to live with."
Autism Diagnosis
"My child's autism diagnosis and the months prior when we noticed that he was 'off.'"
"It's okay now but back when you have these dreams of a normal family, it's like living in a nightmare that you never wake up from. Luckily, he's a wonderful kid, autism or not."
History is full of fascinating people, but you wouldn't know it from your basic history class.
Many of you probably had a hard time with history growing up because it's not taught or presented contextually.
Instead, it's presented in a way that places more emphasis on memorization than on comprehension.
"Who are some of the most bad-ass people in history?"
This was today's burning question from Redditor mrnutterbutter, whom we hope inspired you to learn more about the very real people—who led very real lives—and helped bring about the world we live in right now.
"He was an abolitionist politician..."
"He was an abolitionist politician and certified badass from Kentucky who freed all of his slaves upon inheriting his father's plantation, letting them stay and paying them a fair wage. He was the OG progressive and did not take sh!t from anyone. It's no wonder Muhammad Ali was named after him."
"What is written below isn't even 10% of the absolute badassery this man accomplished in his life. If you want the full story, check out the dollop episode in the comments."
"Clay had a reputation as a rebel and a fighter. Due to threats on his life, he had become accustomed to carrying two pistols and a knife for protection. He installed a cannon to protect his home and office."
"In 1845, Clay began publishing an anti-slavery newspaper, True American, in Lexington, Kentucky. Within a month he received death threats, had to arm himself, and regularly barricaded the armored doors of his newspaper office for protection, besides setting up two four-pounder cannons inside."
"During a political debate in 1843, he survived an assassination attempt by Sam Brown, a hired gun. The scabbard of Clay's Bowie knife was tipped with silver, and in jerking the Bowie knife out in retaliation pulled this scabbard up so that it was just over his heart. Sam Brown's bullet struck the scabbard, and embedded itself in the silver. Despite being shot in the chest, Clay drew his Bowie knife, tackled Brown, cut out his eyes, and finally threw him over an embankment."
This "embankment" was actually the top of the Russell Cave (for which Russell Cave Rd is named after), trivia for any of you native Lexingtonians. It's on Mt. Brilliant farm just south of Elkhorn Creek, where the event was hosted."
"Clay served in the Mexican–American War as a captain with the 1st Kentucky Cavalry from 1846 to 1847. He opposed the annexation of Texas and expansion of slavery into the Southwest. While making a speech for abolition in 1849, Clay was attacked by the six Turner brothers, who beat, stabbed and tried to shoot him. In the ensuing fight, Clay fought off all six and, using his Bowie knife, killed Cyrus Turner."
"He was instrumental in the institution of the Emancipation Proclamation: "Recalled to the United States in 1862 to accept a commission from Lincoln as a major general with the Union Army, Clay publicly refused to accept it unless Lincoln would agree to emancipate slaves under Confederate control. Lincoln sent Clay to Kentucky to assess the mood for emancipation there and in the other border states. Following Clay's return to Washington, DC, Lincoln issued the proclamation in late 1862, to take effect in January 1863."
"He was also appointed minister to Russia and was present for the Tsar's emancipation of the serfs. And his house has (it's still standing) an extremely early form of indoor plumbing and central heating that was revolutionary for the time. He donated 10 acres of the land to form Berea College, the first integrated coeducational college in the South. Dude led an extremely interesting life and is, in my opinion, one of the most important unknown and undiscussed figures in American history."
"I'm sure most of us would have thought..."
"Welles Crowther, aka The Man In The Red Bandana. I'm sure most of us have thought about what it must have been like in the World Trade Center on 9/11 and it must have been debilitatingly petrifying. He was 24 years old working on the 104th floor as an equities trader.
Made his way down to the sky lobby of the South Tower and found a badly burned woman, carried her down 17 floors, then went back upstairs to help guide others to the only passable stairwell. Stayed up there helping others and working with the fire department until the towers collapsed. He's responsible for saving around 20 lives and died a damn hero."
"This lady lost her husband..."
GiphyThis lady lost her husband and when it was proposed she marry his murderer, she was like 'sure, send a delegation over so we can talk this out' and they came. She had them dropped in a pit and buried them alive. Then she had another party of men sent to talk about the marriage, and they came. She said, 'Hey, it was a long journey, why not come relax in this bathhouse' and they did. She set the bathhouse on fire when they were in it.
Then Olga went and sent the Drevilians another message, 'hey bring out the booze i'm coming to mourn my husband's death in your city'. She came, she mourned, she got the Drevilians drunk, and she had them killed by her followers while they were drunk off.
Olga went and got her army, laid siege to the place where her husband was killed for a year, then told them 'I'm willing to forgive and forget if you guys give me a bunch of birds' and the Drevilians did. They turned the birds into mini matches by attaching sulphur to their legs, and then released them. Set the city on fire. Freaking savage.
"Went undercover..."
Nellie Bly. Went undercover and endured abuse to cover neglect and abuse in Blackwell's asylum, went to Mexico and called out the dictator for going after the press and oppressing his people and then fled/was exiled out of Mexico because of that, traveled the world in 70-something days to prove you could travel the world in 80 days or less (based off the the Jules Verne novel) , also did reporting on the Eastern European front in World War One and also was arrested after she was mistaken for a British Spy, and she did so much more ! Such a bad ass and one of my historical heroes.
"As the war dragged on..."
Witold Pilecki, a man so badass that he voluntarily and secretly went into Auschwitz as a prisoner and spy to gather information; while there he regularly made reports on conditions and also organised resistance. As the the war dragged on and conditions became worse, he then successfully broke out of Auschwitz so that he could personally convince his superiors of the truth, as they found his reports too ghastly to be real.
"A movie about him would be called too unrealistic..."
Dude turned down his first Distinguished Combat Medal because he didn't like the general who was supposed to give it to him. All good though, he earned two more. A movie about him would be called too unrealistic if they made one.
"...and when he was corrected..."
Michael Collins. Showed up 7 minutes late to negotiations for the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922, and when he was corrected said "You've had 700 years, I'll take my 7 minutes."
"Eventually he accompanied them..."
Janusz Korczak.
He was a military doctor during WW1, a completely committed amazing pedagogue and the headmaster of a Jewish children's home during WW2 in the Warsaw Ghetto.
He was given several chances to flee to Palestine. Instead electing to stay with the children.
Eventually he accompanied them all the way into the gas chamber, to make sure they didn't have to die alone and scared.
It's one level of bad-assery to kill for your cause.
It's a whole different level of bad-assery to walk towards certain death for several years, endure hardship and starvation. Not for some grand cause. Not even to trade your life for someone else's.
But only because you feel so much love towards your fellow man, to think it's your duty to make sure they won't have to die alone.
"I always felt..."
I always felt Jonas Salk was pretty bad-ass. The dude created the first successful polio vaccine and gave away the cure for free.
"Frank William Abagnale Jr."
By using a fake identity as an airline pilot, he successfully flew over a million miles on flights and forged company checks. Afraid of getting caught, he filled out his application at an apartment, saying his job was a doctor. He then faked a Harvard degree and became a pediatrician."
"At the office, he met a girl whom he called in love with, and lied about also being a lawyer. He left his doctor job after realizing he could kill people. He became a busboy for a local lawyer before quitting and moving to 26 other countries living off fake checks (Approximately $2.5 Million) He was eventually caught..."
"And then celebrated his 21st birthday."
"Facing time in a maximum security prison in France, he broke out and was later deported back to the US. He broke out again by posing as a cop, and after 6 total years in prison, he then worked for the FBI, but without pay."
"He has written a book, 'Catch Me If You Can,' which has spun off into a BAFTA winning movie and Tony winning musical."
nintendonerd256
"In World War II..."
"Joe Medicine Crow. The last legit Native American to earn the War Chief Title. In World War II he was a scout and wore traditional Crow Nation war paint and feathers. To become a war chief he had to touch an enemy without killing him, take an enemy's weapon, lead a successful war party, and steal an enemy's horse. He stole over 50 horses from the SS and earned a Bronze Star."
"Medicine Crow died at 102 years old. He was born with Woodrow Wilson in office and met Barack Obama before he died."
MattHoppe1
"When she finally started losing fights..."
"Chinese pirate queen Ching Shih. Led a huge pirate fleet of up to 400 ships and basically robbed and murdered whatever and whoever she wanted. Her word was law if you were on her crew any disobedience got you beheaded on the spot."
"She murdered Chinese navy, she whooped Bristish and Portugese bounty hunters. Terrorized villages killing the men and selling the women and children into slavery when their ransoms weren't paid."
"When she finally started losing fights to a technologically superior Portugese Navy she cashed out. Took her loyal bloodthirsty pirate army to the Chinese government and suggested that they pardon her and her crew of all crimes and not try to confiscate any of their loot or they were gonna do one more big bloody crime starting right here."
"She ran a brothel/gambling house into her old age and lived in luxury and power."
All of these are definitely excellent entries in the history books.
Do you have similar stories? Share them in the comment section below!
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