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Suspected narcissist mother starting to scare me

85 replies

Ihaveonedaughter · 10/08/2025 23:42

My mum is nearing the end of life after a battle with a neurological condition. She is quite weak and frail but in other ways has the whole deck of cards mentally. However, the last few times I've been to see my parents my mum has been increadingly bitter, angry and nasty towards me. I have a big birthday in early September and my mum gave me a birthday card today and told me she hadn't written in it because I could re use it and I needed to learn to stop spending money. Other nasty comments such as when my daughter asked my mum what I was like as a baby, mum could only say negative things such as I cried and wailed a lot, I was always hungry. My daughter looked upset it was all so negative. Sometimes she will refer to me as a slot because I had a few boyfriends in my teenage years / early twenties.

Last time we visited she told me she'd rather leave everything to my sister in her will as my sister has less and works a temp job etc.

Feel very sad it has come to this I feel my mum honestly hates me and certainly doesn't feel love.
Aibu to go no contact for a while even though mum is close to dying? It is hard because even though my dad doesn't defend me i know he would miss the children if we went no contact. Also i arrange a lot for my dad all of his online shopping, get his laptop fixed, just always tried to be helpful. I know he is struggling with my mum.
Tia x

OP posts:
Rhaidimiddim · 02/09/2025 18:46

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 01:26

Ps @PinkCampervan how do.i get over the anger I have for my dad right now.

Why do you feel you have to "get over" it? You are angry at him, and it sounds as if you have good reason to be.

How you handle that anger should be the question (imho).

My mother was evil, and said and did some very nasty things all my life. I cut her off when my first-born was 4 to spare my child from hearing things that might upset her. I would very much advise you to keep your children away from her.

If your dad complains about misdingbthe kids, give him both barrels - tell him that you are going to protect your child from this nastiness, and you only wish he'd done yhe same.

I am so very sorry you're in such a bad situation.

Ihaveonedaughter · 02/09/2025 18:31

LisiAnne · 02/09/2025 16:08

My sister and I decided even before my mother's end of life care that we would provide care as far as we could without making ourselves ill (mentally and physically). In the end you want to be able to look in the mirror. Please stay in contact with your Dad - I guarantee it hasn't been a bed of roses for him either.

Thanks for posting. My dad has done that thing of swinging between both sides if that makes sense. Neither of my parents have truly been in my corner I always felt my dad more so but he is definitely on my mum's side now. For my very big birthday the people truly in my life now made a lovely effort so i am feeling blessed. Taking a break from my parents for now and just processing everything. My next appointment with my therapist is next week so it will be good to discuss this then. Tbh though I think it has been my mother's need to 'be someone' that has caused this. The narcissism is rampant. If I was on tv / famous/ had gone to Oxford which is what she wanted from me and become a dr she would be very loving towards me I'm sure. It is very sad that she felt she could never just be a normal.human being having normal human relationships. But there we go, we make our ow choices in life. We learn along the way. Thanks for your wisdom mnetters x

OP posts:
LisiAnne · 02/09/2025 16:08

My sister and I decided even before my mother's end of life care that we would provide care as far as we could without making ourselves ill (mentally and physically). In the end you want to be able to look in the mirror. Please stay in contact with your Dad - I guarantee it hasn't been a bed of roses for him either.

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 22:34

PamIsAVolleyballChamp · 11/08/2025 22:21

Definitely. @Ihaveonedaughter am appalled and disgusted by the posters who are trying to tell you #beKind and accept her abuse and nastiness, while of course feeling sorry for your dad as her enabler and co'abuser..
Fuck them both! Leave them and golden sibling to deal with their own mess!

Thank you @PamIsAVolleyballChamp
The irony is the golden child is a caner / herb smoker and is as much use to my dad as a chocolate teapot! which is probably why he keeps me around and to see my kids. But it's the lack of loyalty and love... it's shocking.
Have been so upset today.
Thanks MNetters for your words of wisdom.
Onwards and upwards somehow xx
and lots more therapy! Lols.

OP posts:
PamIsAVolleyballChamp · 11/08/2025 22:21

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 22:09

Agreed!! So impressive xx

Definitely. @Ihaveonedaughter am appalled and disgusted by the posters who are trying to tell you #beKind and accept her abuse and nastiness, while of course feeling sorry for your dad as her enabler and co'abuser..
Fuck them both! Leave them and golden sibling to deal with their own mess!

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 22:09

Rosegoldy · 11/08/2025 20:14

Good lord that is most impressive 👏👏👏.
I have screen shot your last paragraph because it is textbook how I feel.
Thank you.
Extraordinarily on the money.

Agreed!! So impressive xx

OP posts:
Rosegoldy · 11/08/2025 20:14

PinkCampervan · 11/08/2025 18:26

Well your mother sounds like an utter bitch in your adulthood as well as an active abuser in your childhood. What do you gain from having a relationship with her?

The situation is heartbreaking, you're right. She's nothing like what a mother should be and your father is nothing like what a father should be. They're both a waste of space IMO. it's a kind of grief, you're grieving the parents you never had, the realisation that you never will have those decent loving parents. It's a loss of sorts, a loss of hope I suppose. Even if they're still alive it's a loss you're feeling and it takes time to grieve any loss. It's a process and it'll get easier.

With ordinary grief at a loved one dying, you eventually reach a point you can look back at your memories and smile at the good ones, the happy times you shared and feel glad that you knew them. The grief of losing them is the price you pay for the love shared between you. If you hadn't known them you'd not have the grief but you'd also not have had the love. Recovering looks like moving on with your life without them in it, finding ways to fill the hole they left when they died. Hopefully with something equally as good, although obviously different, since they're irreplaceable.

With toxic parents the grief hits different. For a start a dead person can't help dying, they're not deliberately hurting you. Toxic parents who are still alive absolutely could choose to be different. It's a rejection. They'd rather remain toxic than have you in their life. They'd rather have been toxic whilst you grew up, abusing you rather than brought you up to be a well rounded individual and given you a solid foundation to start life from.

All grief feels like a raw wound, like you've lost a limb. Yet with ordinary grief from death you're aware you once had all the limbs. With toxic parents it's somehow even worse than that, because with the realisation of what they are (abusive), you've lost the opportunity for something fundamental that everyone should have: their parents love. The foundation you thought you stood on is an illusion. You never had their love, so you're not standing on a solid base with a raw wound that needs to heal, you're floundering in space with your feet not touching the floor. There's no solid foundation to pick up the pieces of a shattered life and try to get back to some semblance of normality. You never had normality and have to first figure out what it is before you can start trying to get there. There'll never be any happy memories to look back on. You may even have lost some, as it dawns on you that memories of them you previously thought of as happy times weren't really that, they were only the absence of (or perhaps just a reduction of) abuse at that particular moment. In this grief you're paying the price for a debt you never ran up, they did. There's no flipside to having known them because you never had their love. You were still a child who needed it though.

Healing from that grief doesn't feel like sadness fading and being replaced by warm feelings, it feels like indifference. As you start to heal and process all your emotions, the indifference grows until you no longer care about them at all, they become nothing to you, of less value than a stranger you've never met. Because that stranger has the potential to be a nice person and they don't. Recovering from this kind of grief looks like moving on with your life without them in it, by having chosen to cut out the poison that was them so you can become stronger and learning to build a nice life for yourself, to recognise toxicity in others and stay away from it in future.

Good lord that is most impressive 👏👏👏.
I have screen shot your last paragraph because it is textbook how I feel.
Thank you.
Extraordinarily on the money.

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 18:39

PinkCampervan · 11/08/2025 18:26

Well your mother sounds like an utter bitch in your adulthood as well as an active abuser in your childhood. What do you gain from having a relationship with her?

The situation is heartbreaking, you're right. She's nothing like what a mother should be and your father is nothing like what a father should be. They're both a waste of space IMO. it's a kind of grief, you're grieving the parents you never had, the realisation that you never will have those decent loving parents. It's a loss of sorts, a loss of hope I suppose. Even if they're still alive it's a loss you're feeling and it takes time to grieve any loss. It's a process and it'll get easier.

With ordinary grief at a loved one dying, you eventually reach a point you can look back at your memories and smile at the good ones, the happy times you shared and feel glad that you knew them. The grief of losing them is the price you pay for the love shared between you. If you hadn't known them you'd not have the grief but you'd also not have had the love. Recovering looks like moving on with your life without them in it, finding ways to fill the hole they left when they died. Hopefully with something equally as good, although obviously different, since they're irreplaceable.

With toxic parents the grief hits different. For a start a dead person can't help dying, they're not deliberately hurting you. Toxic parents who are still alive absolutely could choose to be different. It's a rejection. They'd rather remain toxic than have you in their life. They'd rather have been toxic whilst you grew up, abusing you rather than brought you up to be a well rounded individual and given you a solid foundation to start life from.

All grief feels like a raw wound, like you've lost a limb. Yet with ordinary grief from death you're aware you once had all the limbs. With toxic parents it's somehow even worse than that, because with the realisation of what they are (abusive), you've lost the opportunity for something fundamental that everyone should have: their parents love. The foundation you thought you stood on is an illusion. You never had their love, so you're not standing on a solid base with a raw wound that needs to heal, you're floundering in space with your feet not touching the floor. There's no solid foundation to pick up the pieces of a shattered life and try to get back to some semblance of normality. You never had normality and have to first figure out what it is before you can start trying to get there. There'll never be any happy memories to look back on. You may even have lost some, as it dawns on you that memories of them you previously thought of as happy times weren't really that, they were only the absence of (or perhaps just a reduction of) abuse at that particular moment. In this grief you're paying the price for a debt you never ran up, they did. There's no flipside to having known them because you never had their love. You were still a child who needed it though.

Healing from that grief doesn't feel like sadness fading and being replaced by warm feelings, it feels like indifference. As you start to heal and process all your emotions, the indifference grows until you no longer care about them at all, they become nothing to you, of less value than a stranger you've never met. Because that stranger has the potential to be a nice person and they don't. Recovering from this kind of grief looks like moving on with your life without them in it, by having chosen to cut out the poison that was them so you can become stronger and learning to build a nice life for yourself, to recognise toxicity in others and stay away from it in future.

Thank you this is really helpful. That is exactly and precisely how I feel, like an injured fox who never had the two legs in the first place. It is a lost and a bewildering place to be in. Ps yes a complete pitch.

OP posts:
PinkCampervan · 11/08/2025 18:26

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 06:21

Sorry it was late last night, I suppose I mean how can you get over it. I feel really heartbroken. There was always collusion with mum making horrible jokes about me and dad laughing and them saying nasty things about me. I still hear from other relatives things mum has said about me. Weird things such as she sent an email to all of her brothers and sisters one year before the Christmas lunch I was hosting complaining about the lunch I was giving (beef) and whether she should bring along the meat she wanted to eat. Another time she told my aunt she thought i was going to become a lesbian (my aunt warned me not to date women). At the moment the obsession is I am spending too much money. My husband and I work really long hours running our own business and we do need to outsource some things or the business wouldn't be possible for us together. I think the fact we are working hard and bringing in a little money seems to have made this worse. Especially with my sister not being financially secure.

Well your mother sounds like an utter bitch in your adulthood as well as an active abuser in your childhood. What do you gain from having a relationship with her?

The situation is heartbreaking, you're right. She's nothing like what a mother should be and your father is nothing like what a father should be. They're both a waste of space IMO. it's a kind of grief, you're grieving the parents you never had, the realisation that you never will have those decent loving parents. It's a loss of sorts, a loss of hope I suppose. Even if they're still alive it's a loss you're feeling and it takes time to grieve any loss. It's a process and it'll get easier.

With ordinary grief at a loved one dying, you eventually reach a point you can look back at your memories and smile at the good ones, the happy times you shared and feel glad that you knew them. The grief of losing them is the price you pay for the love shared between you. If you hadn't known them you'd not have the grief but you'd also not have had the love. Recovering looks like moving on with your life without them in it, finding ways to fill the hole they left when they died. Hopefully with something equally as good, although obviously different, since they're irreplaceable.

With toxic parents the grief hits different. For a start a dead person can't help dying, they're not deliberately hurting you. Toxic parents who are still alive absolutely could choose to be different. It's a rejection. They'd rather remain toxic than have you in their life. They'd rather have been toxic whilst you grew up, abusing you rather than brought you up to be a well rounded individual and given you a solid foundation to start life from.

All grief feels like a raw wound, like you've lost a limb. Yet with ordinary grief from death you're aware you once had all the limbs. With toxic parents it's somehow even worse than that, because with the realisation of what they are (abusive), you've lost the opportunity for something fundamental that everyone should have: their parents love. The foundation you thought you stood on is an illusion. You never had their love, so you're not standing on a solid base with a raw wound that needs to heal, you're floundering in space with your feet not touching the floor. There's no solid foundation to pick up the pieces of a shattered life and try to get back to some semblance of normality. You never had normality and have to first figure out what it is before you can start trying to get there. There'll never be any happy memories to look back on. You may even have lost some, as it dawns on you that memories of them you previously thought of as happy times weren't really that, they were only the absence of (or perhaps just a reduction of) abuse at that particular moment. In this grief you're paying the price for a debt you never ran up, they did. There's no flipside to having known them because you never had their love. You were still a child who needed it though.

Healing from that grief doesn't feel like sadness fading and being replaced by warm feelings, it feels like indifference. As you start to heal and process all your emotions, the indifference grows until you no longer care about them at all, they become nothing to you, of less value than a stranger you've never met. Because that stranger has the potential to be a nice person and they don't. Recovering from this kind of grief looks like moving on with your life without them in it, by having chosen to cut out the poison that was them so you can become stronger and learning to build a nice life for yourself, to recognise toxicity in others and stay away from it in future.

Rosegoldy · 11/08/2025 18:08

Myfansbroken · 11/08/2025 13:06

Yes. Your dad could have written a few words in a card, absolutely. My health is so damaged by stress related conditions as a result if my family I will never recover. Start looking after yourself. Your dc need you.

I have recently been diagnosed with an autoimmune condition and my consultant said that they are overwhelmingly the burden of women, often those with poor childhood experiences, poor relationship experiences and very stressful lives due to caring for others.

The health consequences for women are enormous.
Gabor Mate is very interesting to listen to on the subject.

It is never too late to try to help ourselves by putting ourselves first, finally.....when no one else will.

We pay an enormous price when we don't.

AcquadiP · 11/08/2025 14:28

Myfansbroken · 11/08/2025 12:43

That's a really unfair comment to someone who has endured lifelong narcissistic abuse.

Completely agree, it's extremely unfair.

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 13:08

And ourselves!!

OP posts:
Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 13:08

Myfansbroken · 11/08/2025 13:06

Yes. Your dad could have written a few words in a card, absolutely. My health is so damaged by stress related conditions as a result if my family I will never recover. Start looking after yourself. Your dc need you.

I'm so sorry to hear this. Thank you, yes I completely understand. I have stress related issues too. We need to take care of ourselves and put ourselves first for our children xx

OP posts:
Myfansbroken · 11/08/2025 13:06

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 12:52

Agreed thank you. It is also the reason why people like me put up with bad behaviour for as long as we do. Until we eventually crack.

Yes. Your dad could have written a few words in a card, absolutely. My health is so damaged by stress related conditions as a result if my family I will never recover. Start looking after yourself. Your dc need you.

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 12:52

Myfansbroken · 11/08/2025 12:43

That's a really unfair comment to someone who has endured lifelong narcissistic abuse.

Agreed thank you. It is also the reason why people like me put up with bad behaviour for as long as we do. Until we eventually crack.

OP posts:
Rosegoldy · 11/08/2025 12:45

No the OP does NOT need to think of her dad.
Her dad has looked after himself first for years.
Allowing the OP to be abused.

OP needs to think of herself, her children, her husband.
Put herself and her family first.
Mind herself so she can mind her children.

Myfansbroken · 11/08/2025 12:43

user1471505494 · 11/08/2025 12:24

You need to think about what your poor Dad is going through. He is losing his wife and watching someone dying slowly day in day out is hell

That's a really unfair comment to someone who has endured lifelong narcissistic abuse.

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 12:28

user1471505494 · 11/08/2025 12:24

You need to think about what your poor Dad is going through. He is losing his wife and watching someone dying slowly day in day out is hell

This is why I've tried so hard for so long x

OP posts:
user1471505494 · 11/08/2025 12:24

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 01:26

Ps @PinkCampervan how do.i get over the anger I have for my dad right now.

You need to think about what your poor Dad is going through. He is losing his wife and watching someone dying slowly day in day out is hell

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 12:11

Rosegoldy · 11/08/2025 12:00

Your story is so familiar OP.
Your father chose himself as they very often do in this situation, rather than your safety.
He allowed you be the focus of her nastiness.

Check out therapist Peter Crone on YouTube.
He is very interesting about anger towards parents.

Don't get caught up in trying to resolve your anger.
You deserve to be angry. Feel it.
You cannot go around it.
Feel it and owning it is your best chance of accepting it and eventually moving on.

Her death will bring relief.
Be wary of your father thinking he is now entitled to your time when she is gone.

He sacrificed you completely.
He was the adult, you were the child.

If you focus on your family and knowing that to give them your best, you need to reduce your stress, it might help you.

Posting in your situation can be very helpful.

Thank you. This is exactly how I feel. My dad should have written something nice in a birthday card for me x

OP posts:
Rosegoldy · 11/08/2025 12:00

Your story is so familiar OP.
Your father chose himself as they very often do in this situation, rather than your safety.
He allowed you be the focus of her nastiness.

Check out therapist Peter Crone on YouTube.
He is very interesting about anger towards parents.

Don't get caught up in trying to resolve your anger.
You deserve to be angry. Feel it.
You cannot go around it.
Feel it and owning it is your best chance of accepting it and eventually moving on.

Her death will bring relief.
Be wary of your father thinking he is now entitled to your time when she is gone.

He sacrificed you completely.
He was the adult, you were the child.

If you focus on your family and knowing that to give them your best, you need to reduce your stress, it might help you.

Posting in your situation can be very helpful.

thepariscrimefiles · 11/08/2025 11:47

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 01:22

Yes it has always been like this as way but it has taken me such a long time to fully realise what it all means. I don't think I will regret walking away. I don't feel I can continue to visit and keep being treated like this. Behaviour always like this but worst in recent months. My husband is horrified by the blank birthday card!

You should just walk away. Your mum has always been like that and your dad has always supported her. It's not healthy for your child to hear your mum being so horrible to you and about you.

Your dad has enabled her behaviour so I wouldn't feel too sorry for him. Let your sister, the golden child, help them both.

Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 11:24

Lastknownaddress · 11/08/2025 10:52

@Ihaveonedaughter I hear you. Your posts could have been written by me even down to the comments from M on the blank birthday card, or belittling me to everyone in front of my face or behind my back, or around how much DH and I earn and on and on.

Well done you for staying in contact for so long. I went NC/VLC over a decade ago. And am now dealing with the fall out of what turns out to be a whole toxic family set up across M and her siblings (flying monkeys with narc traits too) as M reaches the end of her life. I am exhausted by the psychodrama of it all.

Sending good wishes and thoughts. Stepping away is all you can do at times. There will be no judgement from me.

Psychodrama is the word! So sorry you are going through something similar. Love your inner child! Mine is currently sobbing on my lap :(

OP posts:
Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 11:23

AcquadiP · 11/08/2025 10:35

I agree and I'm sorry you're going through this.

My "mother" was very similar to yours. She was never short of a nasty comment, an humiliating put down, she seemed to thrive on it. Whatever I did was never good enough. I tried hard to have some sort of semi-decent mother-daughter relationship but it never took off. She wasn't interested in me, the truth is she never had been. It's very difficult to sustain a relationship in those circumstances.
Her birthday cards to me were a joke. I lost count of how many didn't arrive, "lost in the post" was always her claim, though cards from others always arrived.
It would have been easier to deal with her behaviour had she treated my sibling and half-siblings the same way but each of us was assigned either a scapegoat or golden child role and she played one child off against the others on a regular basis. It was a highly toxic environment to grow up in.
I eventually - for the sake of my sanity - went NC. She spun the "uncaring daughter" line too: some believed it, others didn't. She spent the next 30 years badmouthing me to anyone who would listen!
She died last year. I felt sad for a short time, not at the loss of the person she was, but of the mother she could have been.

It's very difficult for people who have not experienced a mother like this to understand how they can be so nasty and unkind because it goes against everything a mother is supposed to represent.
My advice would be follow your gut and put yourself and your wellbeing first, something your mother has spectacularly failed to do. Mentally prepare yourself for the backlash. She may not verbally attack you directly but she may use gullible others to do so. Also, going NC completely changes the family dynamic and there will be some (in my experience) who, recognising there's now a vacancy in the scapegoat department will do everything in their power to make sure it's not them. If you find someone reaching out "to heal the rift" be wary.
It's a horrible situation you're in, OP. Wishing you all the best.

So sorry you have been through something similar. I think I will explode if I don't take a break to be honest. I would prefer a permanent break. I still don't understand why people have children for the wrong reasons like this. My sibling is the golden child, of course. I am the one who has always worked harder / been more conscientious / did not rely on my parents for handouts (sibling still does every single month) / gave my parents grandchildren so they had something to show off about etc etc and still this is the treatment I get! It would be laughable if it wasn't so very sad.

OP posts:
Ihaveonedaughter · 11/08/2025 11:20

Autumnnow · 11/08/2025 10:25

I wouldn't mind betting that the people with whom she'll discuss you being a bad and uncaring daughter, may well know exactly what she's like. But also, anyone who's quick to think badly of you should have no importance in your life. The friends and family who matter will know the truth, you'll know the truth. Worrying what others think is very closely related to feelings of guilt, and you have no reason to feel guilty at all.

Move forward into a happier, less stressful life for your sake and that of your loving family.

Thank you, this is lovely. It's been a blody nightmare.

OP posts: