Episode Transcript
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dot com slash rslash. Welcome
1:02
to Rslash Best of Redditor
1:04
updates, where OP's parents decide
1:06
to just go crazy for
1:08
no reason. Our next Reddit
1:10
post is from GreedPrincess. In 2021, fresh out
1:12
of college, I moved to a new state
1:14
for a job. Since I was facing high
1:16
rents, the Scots, the family friends of my
1:19
parents, offered me their guest house for a
1:21
mere $300 a month. Little
1:23
did I know, this seemingly sweet
1:25
deal would lead to a year
1:28
of turmoil. The Scots, longtime friends
1:30
and business partners of my parents,
1:32
had three kids. As soon as
1:35
I settled in, the Scots became
1:37
excessively involved in my personal life,
1:39
particularly my relationship. The situation
1:41
took a dark turn as they
1:43
fabricated scenarios to my parents, accused
1:46
me of promiscuity, rarely being home,
1:48
and even planning to secretly move
1:51
in with my boyfriend. Their disdain
1:53
for my boyfriend was palpable, treating
1:55
him with passive aggression, condescension, and
1:58
even making a mistake. making derogatory
2:00
comments about him being adopted. The
2:02
interference escalated with family meetings where
2:05
they labeled me as a poor
2:07
influence on their teenage daughter, criticizing
2:09
my boyfriend whom they'd met three
2:11
times. And I have to add,
2:14
my boyfriend and I don't drink
2:16
or smoke and we both have
2:18
careers. My boyfriend is a perfectly
2:20
good man and was always respectful
2:23
to them despite their poor treatments.
2:25
The father of the Scott family
2:27
also shared his marriage problems and
2:30
lack of a sex life with
2:32
me, blurring the boundaries of landlord-tenant
2:34
and inappropriate relationships. The breaking point
2:36
came when the fridge in the
2:38
guesthouse broke and they insisted that
2:40
I foot the bill for a
2:42
$900 replacement. Their influence
2:45
over my parents was significant, as my
2:47
parents rarely had my back and sided
2:49
with the Scots, constantly belittling my boyfriend
2:51
without reason. By the end of 2022,
2:54
I decided to
2:56
move out with some girlfriends of mine,
2:58
leaving without saying goodbye to avoid further
3:00
confrontation. Fast forward to the summer of 2023,
3:02
my boyfriend and
3:05
I were living together in a new
3:07
state and he proposed. To my surprise,
3:09
when my boyfriend asked my parents for
3:11
their blessing, they were supportive and enthusiastic.
3:14
He even flew out my parents to
3:16
witness our engagement. My fiancé's parents generally
3:18
offered to finance the wedding. That winter
3:20
I got a text from my dad
3:23
who urged me to invite the Scots
3:25
to my wedding. I respectfully declined, citing
3:27
the stress that it would cause me
3:30
on our special day. This refusal
3:32
triggered a nuclear war within the
3:34
family. My parents, who were adamant
3:36
that the Scots be included, declared
3:38
that they wouldn't attend the wedding.
3:40
My dad accused me of starting
3:43
my happy life by destroying his
3:45
and my mother uninvited me to
3:47
Christmas. In attempts to salvage the
3:49
situation, I apologized and tried to
3:51
explain my decision. However, my
3:54
parents were unreceptive, hurling insults and
3:56
baseless accusations, claiming my side of
3:58
the family has been cancelled? What?
4:01
My mother then flipped the script and
4:03
threatened to expose details on social media
4:05
of my disrespect to the family if
4:07
I didn't show up for Christmas. Then
4:10
two weeks later, OP posted an update.
4:12
I woke up this morning to a
4:14
bunch of texts from my mother. She
4:17
demanded that I end my engagement, cancel
4:19
the wedding, quit my job, and move
4:21
back into their home. She started saying
4:23
things like, I know you're unhappy, it's
4:26
okay, you tried. Now it's time to
4:28
come home, you have some maturing you
4:30
need to do. This irks me so
4:32
much. My parents literally gave their blessing
4:34
for my marriage six months ago. Now
4:36
they want me to change my entire
4:38
life because they're mad that they didn't
4:40
get their way? I responded and said
4:42
that this is my life, and if
4:44
they don't want to respect my decisions,
4:46
that's on them. But I'm in
4:48
utter shock. I'm financially independent from my
4:50
family, I have a great job, a
4:53
loving brother, where do parents come up
4:55
with this stuff? Then three
4:57
months later, OP posted an update. Initially,
4:59
I found peace in accepting the fact
5:01
that my parents weren't going to attend
5:04
my wedding. I looked forward to celebrating
5:06
with those who would be present and
5:08
knowing that my parents wouldn't be there
5:10
to ruin it. However, a text from
5:12
my younger brother who's 19 shattered that
5:15
peace, revealing that our parents threatened to
5:17
kick him out of the house and
5:19
abandon him financially if he attends my
5:21
wedding. This utterly crushed me. I'm so
5:24
close with my brothers and I love
5:26
them dearly. I have three brothers, aged
5:28
19, 22, and 27. While
5:30
my older brother lives independently, my
5:32
two younger siblings still live with
5:34
our parents. Despite my parents' decision
5:36
to not come to the wedding,
5:38
I told my brothers how badly
5:41
I want them to attend, assuring
5:43
them of my support. After they
5:45
shared their support, I booked their
5:47
travel, optimistic about their participation. I
5:49
was naive to believe that our
5:51
parents would accept this decision. My
5:53
parents' outburst targeted my brothers, leveraging
5:55
financial threats to dissuade them from
5:57
attending, claiming that they're betraying the
5:59
family. by supporting me. I offered
6:01
to financially assist my brothers if they
6:04
still want to attend the wedding knowing
6:06
they would get kicked out, but I
6:08
realize that's still tough to do. In
6:10
response to this outburst, my brothers called
6:13
me and proposed an intervention, aiming to
6:15
address broader familial issues. I tried my
6:17
best to explain that this was a
6:20
bad idea. In fact, I pleaded with
6:22
them. Despite my reservations, I supported them
6:24
by a phone call. I felt that
6:26
I was bound to by sibling loyalty.
6:29
That phone call confirmed my fears.
6:31
There were vile accusations, personal attacks,
6:33
ranging from insults against my fiancé
6:35
to baseless critiques of our life
6:37
choices. My father's tirade, marked by
6:39
verbal abuse, culminated in a cruel
6:41
dismissal of my feelings. Here's a
6:44
few notes that I took during
6:46
this two hour intervention. My fiancé
6:48
isn't an intellectual because he likes
6:50
to snowboard and doesn't know how
6:52
to have intellectual conversations. My fiancé
6:54
doesn't have royal or noble blood
6:56
and therefore cannot have intelligent children?
6:58
Huh? It was rude for my
7:00
fiancé not to buy flowers or
7:02
wine from my parents when he
7:05
flew them from another state to
7:07
see the proposal. My decision to
7:09
change my job and move to
7:11
a new state with my fiancé
7:13
is a manipulation tactic. My dad
7:15
said that calling people names and
7:17
insults is the right thing to
7:19
do when you're mad. My dad
7:21
said that my decision to change
7:23
my career path is stupid and
7:26
I'm cutting him out of his
7:28
life. He thinks that my fiancé's
7:30
job as a salesman makes him a loser.
7:32
My parents are mad that I never offered
7:34
to invite my uncle to the wedding, who
7:37
I haven't seen in 13 years and who
7:39
lives in Russia. My dad says that he
7:41
regrets not punching my fiancé in the face
7:43
when he asks for my blessings and says
7:45
that it'll haunt him for the rest of
7:48
his life that he didn't punch him. He
7:50
says the only reason he gave his blessings
7:52
was to not hurt my feelings. He called
7:54
my fiancé's mom a B-word. I started hysterically
7:57
crying at this point. I felt like a
7:59
little girl. girl again. He called me a
8:01
liar when I explained all the horrible things
8:03
his friend did to me, and why I
8:05
didn't want to invite them to the wedding.
8:08
He even called me a liar when I
8:10
explained that his friend, who's 70 by the
8:12
way, would try to talk about his sex
8:14
life with me. Crying, I explained to my
8:16
dad, I just wish you cared about my
8:18
feelings too because I am also really hurt
8:20
and I just want you to understand my
8:23
perspective. He said, Why the
8:25
f**k should I care about your feelings?
8:27
You don't respect me, my friends, or
8:29
my values. F**k your feelings you
8:31
stupid b**k. I ended the call right
8:34
there. After this call, my brother said
8:36
that they would still be attending my
8:38
wedding because this has become an issue
8:40
of standing up to my father's unacceptable
8:42
behavior. Despite my brother's attempts to defend
8:45
me, we were outmatched by our father's
8:47
narcissism. Today marks day one of going
8:49
no contact. Then, one month later, OP
8:51
posted an update and she spends a
8:54
few paragraphs explaining that she decided to
8:56
cut her parents out of her life,
8:58
her brothers attended her wedding and her
9:00
wedding was great. The day after the
9:03
ceremony, over breakfast with my husband and
9:05
older brother, I learned that my parents
9:07
had been incessantly trying to reach out
9:09
to my brother. My brother and husband
9:11
shielded this information from me so that
9:13
I didn't get upset this week. However,
9:15
my curiosity got the better of me
9:17
and I insisted on asking my brother
9:19
to see what my parents said to
9:21
him. What I read shook me to
9:23
the core. My brother texted my mom.
9:26
She will never forgive you for this
9:28
and our entire family will never be
9:30
the same. My mother's response,
9:32
forgive us? She betrayed
9:34
the family? She's gone completely
9:36
insane. This sinister family has
9:39
completely changed her values and they've
9:41
been grooming her for three years.
9:43
She's making a huge mistake by
9:45
marrying. Glad you guys are so
9:47
close again. The guilt that
9:50
I'd been carrying evaporated in an instant.
9:52
I realized that me being happy with
9:54
my husband would never be enough for
9:56
them. I refuse to be held hostage
9:58
by their misery any longer. longer. You can't
10:00
change someone who just wants to be
10:03
miserable for the rest of their lives.
10:05
Here's where things become laughable. I blocked
10:07
the Scott's wife on Instagram so that
10:09
she wouldn't see my wedding photos. Mr.
10:11
Scott, in response, sent a giant text
10:13
accusing me of being abusive to his
10:15
wife and kids, despite the fact that
10:17
I haven't seen or spoken to them
10:19
in over a year. He then said
10:21
that he will no longer support me,
10:23
and if I get a divorce, he
10:25
won't be there for me. I promptly
10:27
blocked him, refusing to entertain such a
10:30
stupid message. Alright, that
10:32
post was unexpectedly bonkers.
10:35
I'm gonna be honest, I don't fully
10:38
understand why the parents completely flew off
10:40
the handle over something so minor. So,
10:42
going through the comments, I see a
10:45
surprising number of people say that their
10:47
theory is that the Scots were planning
10:49
on grooming OP to become Mr. Scott's
10:51
mistress. Which, um, I don't know if
10:54
that's the case or not, my personal
10:56
theory as I was reading this is
10:58
that the Scots wanted OP to
11:00
marry one of their sons, not
11:03
Mr. Scott. But this is just total speculation.
11:05
I don't know, what do you guys think?
11:08
Our next Reddit post comes from r
11:10
slash relationships. My dad married my stepmother
11:12
three months ago, and I
11:15
feel like it made my life significantly
11:17
harder and less pleasant. They moved in
11:19
with us, and for the indefinite future,
11:21
the situation won't change. We have a
11:23
three-bedroom house, and before they moved in,
11:25
my dad and I had our own
11:28
rooms, both with bathrooms, and there was
11:30
a smaller room which was a study
11:32
from my dad. After they moved in,
11:34
my step-sister Jenny, who's 16, got my
11:36
room, and I had to share the
11:39
smaller room with my two step-brothers, Tom
11:41
and Mike, who are 11 and 10.
11:43
All my books, my telescope, and my
11:45
things are packed up and are now
11:47
in the basement since there's no space
11:49
anymore. This made me really angry, but
11:51
my dad told me that I have
11:53
to be a team player, and this
11:55
is what him and his wife agreed
11:57
on. Jenny treats me like garbage. She
11:59
sometimes- sometimes acts as if I'm not
12:01
there at all, and sometimes is super
12:03
aggressive and hostile towards me. The other
12:05
day, I asked Tom to stop going
12:08
through my things, and she became so
12:10
angry and said, You have no right
12:12
to order my brother around. She
12:14
told me to get it in my thick skull that
12:16
I'm not their big brother to tell them what to
12:18
do, even though all I asked was for them to
12:21
stop going through my things. She
12:23
said that it's best if I don't talk to
12:25
them at all, since that way they'll get less
12:27
influence from a weirdo like me. What
12:29
I don't get is that if she's so
12:31
concerned that I might leave a bad influence
12:34
on Tom and Mike, then why doesn't she
12:36
change rooms with me? Tom and Mike don't
12:38
respect any boundaries. They're always
12:40
going through my stuff. I have a watch
12:42
which was a gift from my mother. She
12:45
died of cancer, and they took it
12:47
from my drawer and lost it. I found
12:49
it weeks later in the basement with
12:51
its glass broken. Before they moved
12:53
in, I used to get a $100 allowance every month. Now,
12:57
Jenny gets $75, I get $35, and Tom and Mike each get
12:59
$30. I
13:03
had an Xbox, but these kids broke it.
13:05
I used to spend a lot of time
13:07
with my dad. He used to come see
13:09
me play basketball almost every week. He hasn't
13:11
done it even once in the past three
13:14
months since he's always working overtime. We eat
13:16
out once a week, and none of them
13:18
in these three months have been to any
13:20
of my favorite places. But Jenny,
13:22
Tom, and Mike have each chosen their favorite
13:25
places more than once. I complained about all
13:27
of this to my father last week, and
13:29
he told me that family is all
13:31
about sacrifices, and I have to make
13:34
my sacrifices. But haven't I
13:36
made enough sacrifices already? I feel like
13:38
I'm the only one making sacrifices. I
13:40
looked forward to them moving in here,
13:42
but now I feel like an outsider
13:44
at home. It's not my home anymore.
13:46
I don't want to live here anymore,
13:48
but I'm only 15 and
13:50
I can't move out. I have nobody
13:52
else who can take me in. I can't
13:55
stay here for three more years. I'll go
13:57
crazy. I often fantasize about running away at
13:59
night. but I know that's also
14:01
as horrible if not even more. Then,
14:04
one month later, OP posted an update.
14:06
Okay, a LOTS happened. I decided to
14:08
just ask my dad and stepmother for
14:10
some time to talk to them, and
14:13
I just showed them my post on Reddit.
14:15
They took a good half an hour to
14:17
read everything. There were times that it looked
14:19
like they were going to start crying. Eventually,
14:21
they told me that they need more time
14:23
and will talk about it in a couple
14:26
of days. Two nights later, my dad asked
14:28
me to come to the room, and to
14:30
make it short, they got it. They
14:32
both hugged me, and at some point,
14:34
my stepmother started crying. They apologized to
14:36
me for their negligence and told me
14:38
that they messed this up. They had
14:40
put all their attention and focus on
14:42
helping my step-siblings adjust given their new
14:44
living arrangements and everything, and neglected how
14:46
difficult it must have been for me.
14:49
They promised me that things will change.
14:51
As for the room arrangement, they realized
14:53
that it's not reasonable. So, they offered
14:55
me the basement, as a lot of
14:57
you suggested. We went to the store
14:59
and bought a lot of supplies and made
15:01
it a family exercise for everyone to contribute
15:03
refurbishing the basement and make it like a
15:06
bedroom. So, now I'll have my own room.
15:08
It won't have a bathroom like before,
15:10
but I can share a bathroom with
15:12
the boys. That's not a problem. The
15:14
money allowance changed as well. Now, Jenny
15:16
gets $60, I get $50, and
15:19
the boys get $30 each. So, basically, $15
15:22
shifts from Jenny to me, which I think is much
15:24
more fair. It's not as good as the $100 I
15:26
used to have, but this is something I
15:29
can understand and accept. Now, to
15:32
Jenny. My stepmother told me that
15:34
Jenny's problem isn't really with me.
15:36
It's that her mother remarried, and
15:39
Jenny doesn't like that because Jenny was hopeful
15:41
that her mom would return to her dad.
15:43
Now she's trying to make this work, and
15:45
I'm just caught in the crossfire. Apparently, she's
15:48
been a little B-word to my dad as
15:50
well. My stepmom promised me that she would
15:52
handle Jenny and make sure that she won't
15:54
be a problem. As for the boys, this
15:56
is the most difficult one since they're 10
15:58
and 11. My parents gave me
16:01
a small lock so that I can lock my bag
16:03
for now, and when the basement is ready, I can
16:05
lock at store and only me and the parents will
16:07
have the key. So at least my
16:09
stuff will be safe. They also made some little
16:12
changes to make things easier. They told me that
16:14
I can come to them for any problems, and
16:16
my dad promised me some father-son time every couple
16:18
of weeks as well. Ginny came to me a
16:21
few nights later and asked if I would come
16:23
with her for a walk in the neighborhood as
16:25
she wanted to talk to me. She
16:27
apologized to me for everything and
16:30
told me that she didn't and still
16:32
doesn't like that her mom married my dad
16:34
and she was forwarding her anger and frustration
16:36
towards me, which wasn't right.
16:39
She said that I'm probably going through similar
16:41
things as she is and there's really no
16:43
reason for us to make each other's lives
16:45
even more difficult than it already is. So
16:48
I accepted her apology and we shook hands on
16:50
being on the same team from now on. And
16:53
honestly, she's been very different ever
16:55
since. She's helping me a lot
16:57
in preparing the basement and she makes Tom and
16:59
Mike help as well. The other day
17:01
when I asked Tom to turn down the TV
17:04
volume and he refused, she told him, listen
17:06
to your big brother. I hope she remains this
17:08
way. It's nice to have a story
17:10
with a happy ending every once in a while. That
17:13
was our slash best of Redditor updates. And
17:15
if you like this content, be sure to
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follow my podcast because I put out new
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Reddit podcast episodes every single day. Some
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