I cut myself from my family when I was 21. I live in the UK but I am not a native. In my native country, the culture favours males for everything. They take precedent and pretty much decide it all, from family dynamics to laws.
My parents wanted me to marry my uncle. I was 20 at the time. He was 44. This was a step too far for me. I couldn’t go through with it. I became depressed and couldn’t eat anything during this period. I complained to my parents about it, but they told me I had no choice but do as they commanded. I decided to leave home and my family shortly after. There was no way I could marry my uncle. Besides the fact it would be incest, and he was far much older than me at the time. . . The man was a drunken pig. Constantly smelled of alcohol.
I now live in England, am happily married and have 3 beautiful children. When I ran away, I still kept in contact with my sisters. My parents said I wasn’t their child any longer so we didn’t remain in contact.
However, now my mother wants to “talk.” My father is still my dad and that won’t ever change. He’s a stubborn goat. But it seems my mother is having second thoughts. But I don’t want anything to do with her. I don’t want her to be around my family, even if it is only through digital and not physical means.
My mother forced my second youngest sister to marry the uncle I was supposed to marry. We talk on the phone. She’s absolutely miserable and it breaks my heart. I can’t forgive my mother for what she did to my sister (I was told that by this time, my dad wasn’t so insistent of the marriage, it was my mother who pushed). She knew what a joke the man was but still pushed for both me and my sister.
My mother said I am being "cruel" for not even sending pictures of my kids to her.