For real.

How dare you to how dare you not finish inside.

It’s wild how so many people can hammer an idea into others, change their mind out of the blue, and then hammer the opposite idea in without any recognition of the switch they made.

It reminds me of how, before puberty, every issue I had was dismissed by my parents as “silly kid problems.”

But the moment puberty hit, my parents were all, “You know if you have a problem, you can come to us with ANYTHING, right? Right?! LITERALLY ANYTHING. TELL US EVERYTHING” They went from not giving a shit about my concerns throughout my entire life, to expecting me to magically open up and be super budsy with them about personal issues.

No, you spent my formative years telling me my problems weren’t important. The only thing you taught me about “dealing with problems” is not to come to you when I have them. Which means I was forced to figure out everything for myself, without your input, and now you think you deserve to be privvy to what’s going on in my life? GTFO of here! That ship has sailed, and you’re the ones who sent it off.

They never did acknowledge the difference in their behavior, just flipped like a switch and didn’t understand why I didn’t flip along with them. I imagine that happens around a lot of “milestone” events (puberty, reaching adulthood, graduation, marriage, etc.) Parents suddenly see their kid differently, but the kid still feels the same. It can be pretty jarring.