My misery!

Nope, the adult child having to give up their life, their marriage, their jobs, etc. to care for their elderly parent is not how life was meant to be. Sick parents prepare their children from childhood to be their slaves one day and years later when the adult child is needed, it is like a time bomb that goes off in the person's head and they go into auto-pilot. A responsible parent saves up for their retirement and later years Irresponsible parents view children to take care of them regardless of what the adult child has to give up. It is almost like an emotional theme is planted in them that when needed it is time to forsake all others, (job, spouse, children, life) and cleave to your parent until death do you part.

You are correct Roscoe, to get out of the trap you are in, you either need to release your parent to spending her own money on herself or looking into her qualifying for medicare so that someone else can care for her 24/7 in a nursing home.

BTW, what are you going to do, where will you live, how will find a job, and how are you going to handle getting old, once your mother dies? I don't know for right now your future looks about as bleak as your present unless you can find some way to force yourself to get outside of her crazy control and start building a life for yourself.

What is right?.....what's the wrong thing to do? If someone does the normal thing and has their own life.....then they abandoned their parent. Is this the way life is supposed to be...a child has to literally give up their life in order to care for an elderly parent. Hey...."children"........you don't get to have a life.....no career......no marriage......no dating or relationships. You have to be with your parent 24/7 and take care of them. Welcome to my life!

I understand the mental torture growing up in a dis functional family. I too lost my father at 18 and was the 'one' to try to bring help and happiness into this world. I left home around 20... Got my own apartment and supported myself ever since... I ended leaving the state of Illinois which was never my 'element' and was happy and working for the next few yes ads... My mother remarried and I was thrilled she could do her 'thing' with her second husband but then he died and moved by... Then 'in' with me... Now she has a lot do disabilities but continues to try and control and demean me... This is so selfish ... Just like your mother . I understand tryin/hoping to hold on to the mother you really never had, especially since you/we aren't married. The goo thing is you this site and you have us to relate to. I,m trying to breake this mold by getting out more... This is so important to us for so many reasons... Force yourself to get out and make friends... You and I have our own lives and we're don't responsible for theirs.

I am sorry you were not able to run like heck when you turned 18 to make a life for yourself. It's not too late but only you can take that first step for freedom.

Roscoe888, no criticism from me for your complaining. I sorry to read your story of childhood abuse and yoir mean mother's domination of your entire life even to 55 years old. You are not alone in what you have experienced. Others have experienced a mother who demanded that she always wanted to come first and seriously wanted their son or daughter to give up anyone they found to date. My mother-in-law hated the idea that my wife was dating and was seriously wanting to get married. Her mother even told her why do you want to get married, stay here with us and we will take care of your needs. She broke away from them, but her mother still lived in her heads for years and had to go into therapy for several years to get her full freedom. My wife was 33 when we married. Her mother had made her almost completely afraid of men and was heading into a relationship with another woman before we met. It took her being in therapy to get enough freedom for us to actually get married. Unfortunately, her mother had no boundaries and told my wife very intimate details about her marriage to her dad who was one of the most dominated men that I have ever seen.

My mother was very controlling of my life, never met my emotional needs, but used me to meet her needs which was easy for her to do after she left and divorced my dad and became a single parent. I was always her little man and said that I was the man of the house but that was a lie for I became more of a substitue partner for her as I grew older. Many, many years later she told me that she knew that she had not met my emotional needs and how she treated me had and was going to cause a lot of pain in my life which is true. But she also said that she could not help it.

I escaped her by going to college and graduate school which my dad paid for. I had to go into therapy myself to complete getting my freedom. I was 31 when I got married to my wife.

I say all of this to say that you can escape, even at 55, you can find a way to get a normal or basically a normal life that most people experience. There has got to be a way for you to gain the freedom that you never have had there in Weirton, WV.

No one can force anybody to do anything. You remained with your Mother by choice/obligation, and that has to change for your own wellbeing.

Sounds like your Mom resented the fact that her husband [your Dad] died leaving her to fend for herself. And throughout all those years, she was afraid that you would leave to live your own life. When was the last time your Mom saw her primary doctor? Something as simple as an urinary tract infection can cause an elder to become mean and uncooperative.

Now is the time for your Mother to live in a continuing care facility. If money is an issue check with Medicaid to see if your Mom will qualify. If Mom refuses to move into a retirement home, tell her she has only 2 choices.... the retirement home where she will be around people of her own generation, or she will be living alone. You are no longer in the equation.