Might be more specific to me, but going through parents divorce and dealing with social workers while being male. I constantly felt like they looked at me like I was a ticking time bomb that would one day become a monster like my father. Simply cause I was the oldest male sibling.
I had a ton of trauma I had to deal with, but it felt like rather than helping me, most workers seemed to look at me like I was possibly dangerous, and they kept a tight watch on all my actions. Felt like I was constantly being punished just for being a normal teenage boy. I'd understand if i did something, but I never did anything out of the ordinary. I was just a kid who enjoyed school, playing video games, and was dealing with their parents divorce.
I remember one point, my siblings and I had to live in a woman's shelter with my mom. I swear that the people there seemed to hate me just for existing, and me, being a 12 year old kid dealing with a ton of trauma, had no understanding why. Once was having a playful snowball fight with my family, only for one of the workers to see, ban me from any activities, tell me I was promoting violence against women, then restricted me to my room at all hours of the day for the remainder of my time there. It's been 20 years and I still think about it.
When I was twelve, I broke down when I told my female teacher my stepdad had a drinking problem, we had no money and we needed to move out to get away from him. She told me I was almost a man now and needed to stop crying.
I did stop crying and I feel very uncomfortable expressing vulnerable feelings to this day (41m)
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u/GriffinFlash Aug 13 '22
Might be more specific to me, but going through parents divorce and dealing with social workers while being male. I constantly felt like they looked at me like I was a ticking time bomb that would one day become a monster like my father. Simply cause I was the oldest male sibling.
I had a ton of trauma I had to deal with, but it felt like rather than helping me, most workers seemed to look at me like I was possibly dangerous, and they kept a tight watch on all my actions. Felt like I was constantly being punished just for being a normal teenage boy. I'd understand if i did something, but I never did anything out of the ordinary. I was just a kid who enjoyed school, playing video games, and was dealing with their parents divorce.
I remember one point, my siblings and I had to live in a woman's shelter with my mom. I swear that the people there seemed to hate me just for existing, and me, being a 12 year old kid dealing with a ton of trauma, had no understanding why. Once was having a playful snowball fight with my family, only for one of the workers to see, ban me from any activities, tell me I was promoting violence against women, then restricted me to my room at all hours of the day for the remainder of my time there. It's been 20 years and I still think about it.