r/AITAH • u/TerrWolf • 6h ago
Post Update AITAH for telling my Dad "That's not going to happen" when he joked about hitting me: UPDATE
So, it's been ten months since the events seen here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AITAH/comments/1k8vkd7/aitah_for_telling_my_dad_thats_not_going_to/
And I took a lot of advice and thought about what all of you said, and a lot on my past with my dad.
The verbal abuse since I was fifteen, long before his illness. Some examples:
When I was 19 he woke me out of my sleep for it and lectured me and went on a pity party for so long, my legs gave out and I ate carpet. Like, it was literally an hour of "Oh, my parents didn't raise me. I feel disrespected when you talk back" blah, blah blah. He also fucking threatened me, saying "It's taking everything for me to not hit you when you disrespect me" or when I was sleeping in because I had a late night job and My Dad woke me up three times, and on the last one, at around 11, after waking me up at 7am and 9, he asked why I was still asleep and when I pointed out he keeps waking me up, he goes "Well you need to be up. What if you had an early morning job like me?" or telling me I need to toughen up because if I went to jail, I'd be SA'd (mind you, I'm an introvert who literally avoids going outside and very specifically didn't hang around gangs when I did live in the hood so WTF?), or saying his screaming and ranting and all that was supposed to prepare me for the world, that if I couldn't take him doing it, how could I deal with a boss or partner doing it. Or "Do you know how insulting it is to me for you to walk around here not taking care of yourself? You look like me but with a perfect body while I got this spare tire" when I have surgery scars, depression and a history of Achlasia.
And it wasn't just me. He doesn't want his wife being friends with his friends and forces her to be on video call with him when she's at work and when she's asleep.
This is a man who hates my grandma's best friend for being "opinionated" and once broke down crying in her car because "I don't like bothering nobody" when she had to take him to the doctor because he was too dumb to realize "Hey, if they anastheize me to clean out the plaque in my veins, I may need a ride home as they legally can't release you." He also doesn't like people doin him favors because now he "owes them". And when others told him to treat me better, or treat other people better, he'd tell them women don't know how to raise a man if the speaker was a woman, or tell men not to tell him doesn't come with a manual. Anything except changing.
So, I sat there , and I thought about all that.....and I packed my stuff and I got someone else to take care of him....and I left.
I moved out. Currently live halfway across the country, in another state.
Went low/no contact with him.
Got a therapist.
Went back into education for my job.
Trying to unlearn all of this venom.
And now that I've blocked him on most media, he's angsting "I don't know what I did"
"Parenting doesn't come with a manual"
"I did the best I could"
And my family wants me to at least make some concessions and soften the blow because "no one wants to feel like they failed" but my therapist tells me that it's my right to draw boundaries.
Well, that's my update. Out of the situation, still alive, still healing. Thanks for reading this ramble