So sad

[Elfingbell]

Last year I felt I had it all - loved my job, bought my first home with the man I loved and had dd, then:
We get hit with astronomical fees for 24hr fire watch in our apartment block. My partner left me for another woman when dd was a few months old. Covid saw me working from home and looking after DD I wasn’t performing at my best and have now lost my job.
I’ve spent 90% of my savings and this week will move back to my hometown and move in with my mentally ill mother.
I’m returning the keys to my apartment to the bank which means I’ve lost my deposit money but frees me from the mortgage, repossession wasn’t far off anyway.
I know I’m lucky having somewhere safe to go and some savings but I’m just so sad that It’s come to this.
I’m not looking for sympathy or advice I just needed to write it down.

@EffYouSeeKaye she said she'd left so I guess if she'd got back to posted it would have been for the applause of having done it

@finsorfeathers - if you are looking for inspiration maybe it could be about a little girl who tells lies and the trouble she gets into?!

Blimey. Who'dathunkit? Well not me as I never spot troll threads. As everyone else said well done Sleeping. Not stupid just nice and caring.

@SleepingStandingUp I’m very old and ugly and was suckered in too.

I do give the benefit of the doubt to improbable stories because there was a series of threads here in 2017 about a woman dying from a brain tumour, posted by her husband, and despite all the calls of troll and it’s subsequent deletion I knew it to be true because we worked for the same organisation and her husband was well known to my friends at work. So I guess what I’m saying is sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and I’d prefer to tread kindly.

[quote Justnormajean]@SleepingStandingUp I’m very old and ugly and was suckered in too.

I do give the benefit of the doubt to improbable stories because there was a series of threads here in 2017 about a woman dying from a brain tumour, posted by her husband, and despite all the calls of troll and it’s subsequent deletion I knew it to be true because we worked for the same organisation and her husband was well known to my friends at work. So I guess what I’m saying is sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and I’d prefer to tread kindly.[/quote]
This is the issue with shouting 'troll'! I rarely allow myself to believe that the thread starter is lying, because there's always that niggling 'what if they're not...?'

Although I've accepted the OP in this thread was not being truthful, I'm still not any clearer as to how MNHQ established they weren't

And @smallgoon many people here in good faith expressed innate kindness and empathy, and even though the person spinning the yarn manipulated them, their kindness remains as their testament.

@Justnormajean

And *@smallgoon* many people here in good faith expressed innate kindness and empathy, and even though the person spinning the yarn manipulated them, their kindness remains as their testament.

Absolutely agree.

As someone who posted a (very real, very distressing) thread on here and was called a troll, I will never ever publicly call troll again. It made an already incredibly painful situation even more painful. Thankfully I was able to prove it was true and MNHQ were never in touch so I'm assuming even if it was reported they were assured of the veracity. But it was really upsetting. So I think it's always better to hope for the best and if you have doubts, report to MNHQ and leave the thread.

I'm still none the wiser as to how MNHQ 'established' that OP was trolling.

I don’t think this sort of thing is necessarily always malicious. It just feels that way because you feel so ‘taken in’ afterwards.

This one always struck me as somebody using the thread to help them write as book.

What caught my attention was how similar the ‘voices’ of the op, her Dad and sisters were. So, op, you might want to work on your characterisation in future. Also, the nod to Grenfell is a bit gauche. Overall, 3/10.

I was taken in as well, although I did think it was strange that the stepmum and stepsister were so forgiving. Or how the OP changed her personality overnight with this "epiphany". It's not really how real people tend to behave...but then again it's not completely improbable either.
It has elements of something that COULD happen.
I also am curious how the mods establish whether a thread is true or not.

Agree, CindersCat!

The long message from the step-sister in particular, was written in exactly the same style as the OPs own writing.

I think if HQ revealed how they figure out if a post is true it would make it harder for them to do so in future. So probably best they keep it under wraps!

@peachgreen

I think if HQ revealed how they figure out if a post is true it would make it harder for them to do so in future. So probably best they keep it under wraps!

Fair point. Just wondering if there's the margin for error in 'establishing' somebody is a troll, when in fact they aren't...?

@Smallgoon

I'm still none the wiser as to how MNHQ 'established' that OP was trolling.

Well, if it walks and quacks like a duck!

No step mother would be as forgiving as the one described.

No dad would ask about such specific incidents a decade after they happened.

No sister would send lengthy emails like that. They also wouldn’t spam pictures and welcome the OP with open arms.

No OP would be so civil and lovely to an ex that apparently left for OW when DC was a baby.

No OP would do such a huge 180 and reevaluate their life in such a short period.

The finances part was rubbish. BM and her “Nordic walks” made me and handing keys back to the bank gets you out of a mortgage? No.

This thread was hilariously batshit but I couldn’t stop reading to see the next invented instalment

My MIL does Nordic walking so that bit seemed realistic to me!!

There may well have been a grain of truth within the story. The OP may well have been from a toxic family or possibly mentally ill. Who knows why people make this stuff up?

I was a bit suspicious because there wasn’t really much emotion directed at the partner that apparently cheated and left her in such a mess. The sharing the step siblings words were an extra step that cast a bit of doubt.

Oh.
I was so invested in this, and had thought about her a lot....

Wow

@CindersCatsSister

What caught my attention was how similar the ‘voices’ of the op, her Dad and sisters were. So, op, you might want to work on your characterisation in future. Also, the nod to Grenfell is a bit gauche. Overall, 3/10.

Nah, I thought the firewatch thing gave it a bit of Zeitgeist.

Strongly agree that the characterisation needs work. As a pp said, the voices of the different characters were just a bit too similar. Keep at it at it OP I think there’s a germ of a creative writer in there.

SleepingStandingUp you acted in good faith unlike the OP.

I ducked out of the thread after the purported email from the badly bullied young step sister was posted, it was just too good to be true. To be honest the mismatch with the perfectly reasonable posts by the OP and the details of what she had done as recently as a few months ago were already ringing bells.

Oh really? I thought it was a bit obvious...