Most of us carry opinions with us about the best ways to live our lives, and we might even have a thought or two about how others are living their own.
It’s when we share those unsolicited thoughts, and wrap them up in morals and religion, that they really become a problem, cringed the members of the “Am I Overreacting?” (AIO) subReddit.
A Redditor, who has since deleted her account, called her parents to share the great news that she and her boyfriend were expecting their first child and were incredibly excited.
When her mother instead sent her a series of hateful texts, wishing her to one thousand h**ls for her behavior, the Original Poster (OP) decided it was time to close this chapter with her parents and start a fresh one with her boyfriend and baby.
She asked the sub:
“Was I overreacting by cutting my overzealous, religious mom off when she freaked out because I am pregnant?”
The OP received hurtful messages from her mother upon revealing that she was pregnant.
Her mom texted:
“This is shameful and shocking news. Lord, forgive her, for she knows not what she does.”
“1 Thessalonians 4:3: ‘It is God’s will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality.'”
“As above, fornication is a sin, and we did NOT raise you to throw away your life like this.”
“We tried SO hard to steer you down the right path, and then you let liberalism take over.”
“Your father will be hearing about this.”
The OP was over it:
“You know what? F**k you. I am not a child anymore, mom. I am no longer the spineless little girl who was once too scared to even tell her parents she was on her period.”
“[Boyfriend’s name] and I love each other. We don’t care how you feel [or] how dad feels.”
“I’ll kick you out of our lives if it means we are happy and my baby is healthy.”
“I called you, thinking you’d be happy, but I thought wrong, huh?”
Her mom lashed out:
“You will not talk to me like that.”
“I curse you! I curse you to a thousand hells.”
“I refuse to be a willful participant in all that is ungodly and unholy. I therefore wash my hands of the situation.”
The OP ended the conversation:
“I am so over this.”
The OP then proceeded to block her parents.
“I blocked her since this conversation, and I preemptively blocked my dad bc he’s just as crazy.”
“If you’ve ever seen ‘Carrie,’ I basically have a mom like that (maybe not as bad, but you get what I mean).”
“My parents both grew up as strict Christians in strict Christian households in Arkansas (they’d moved to New Hampshire by the time they had me), and they never grew out of it.”
“Honestly, I don’t care if I lose them both. I have a bundle of joy on the way and a loving partner.”
“Besides… I’m an adult, and it’s about time I start taking control of my own life.”
“AIO?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in:
- NOR: Not Overreacting
- YOR: You’re Overreacting
Some were disgusted by how the OP’s mother hid behind her “religion.”
“The irony of her refusing to participate in anything unholy, all while cursing you to a thousand h**ls.” – cruddypoet00
“Too many people use religion to be abusive. Nowhere in the Bible does it say pray for your children’s demise. Nowhere in the Bible does it say use prayer for retribution. People twisted it so much. It’s f**king horrible.” – Healthy-Grape-777
“Praying for bad things to happen is not Christianity. That’s like some kind of weird, malicious superstition. (It’s also a horrific thing for a parent to say, so I’m sorry that you had to endure that )”
“As a Catholic myself, I just had to mention there’s nothing Christlike about that kind of prayer and that there are many ways to try to become closer to the divine, and the God I believe in is present in all of them.” – LiteraryOlive
“An actual Christian does not believe humans have the ability to curse someone else, and they also don’t believe in a thousand hells. She’s just making it up and calling it religion.” – MollyRolls
“See, I would have told her that I did know what I was doing and I had fun doing it!”
“My mom told me I was a sinner because I was having premarital sex. I told her it wasn’t premarital sex, if I didn’t plan on marrying them!”
“I am NOT my religious mother’s favorite child…” – Worried_Necessary157
“Wait until the next part, where, a few months or years from now, she wants to be part of the child’s life to ‘save’ them.”
“There will be a pathetic excuse for an apology, begrudging fake pleasantries, all to get right back to cursing you to 1,000 hells (Even though their precious Bible says, ‘judge not lest you be judged,’ and many other accounts of God basically saying you have no power to judge anyone because you’re all equally sinful).”
“As a fellow Hell-bound child of uber-Christians, I can say my life is 1,000-fold happier free from that false-Christian crap. 12 years away next June and never looked back.” – ShadowBox_Fox
“Tell your mom to go back and reread The Book of John, chapter eight, verses one through eleven.”
“It’s about a woman who was an adulterer, and the townspeople wanted her to be stoned to death, and Jesus stepped in and basically said okay. Whoever among you is without sin may cast the first stone. What do you know? No one threw a stone.”
“From us REAL Christians, your mom isn’t one. You cannot judge and have a holier-than-thou attitude. Jesus hung out with the homeless. The ‘lesser’ part of man.”
“She needs to get the f**k out of her glass house.” – Wicked-elixir
“I’ll say it with my whole chest: a lot of mentally ill people are using religious imagery to hide and mask the fact that they are bugf**k crazy as s**t. And whenever anyone points out how bugf**k crazy they are, they use scripture to shield themselves from accountability and refuse to seek real treatment.” – akestral
Others found the mom’s comments to be ridiculous and immature.
“I’m sorry, but I literally laughed out loud at, ‘Your father will be hearing about this.’ Are you 12? Will he ground you? Take away your iPad?”
“I’m sorry. I’m sure this is hard, even if you expected it on some level. But good for you for protecting yourself, your baby, and the life you are building now. Definitely NOR.”
“And congrats to you and your guy.” – GenoFlower
“My mom used to actually leave for a few days and act like she was never coming back, and then eventually would. It destroyed me as a kid, but yes, as an adult, she lost all her power.”
“We are no contact now because she couldn’t deal with the boundaries I put up, and no longer had her threats to throw at me. Sorry I’m not a scared little kid anymore; please go ahead and leave.” – InterestingTry5190
“I completely understand what you’re going through, OP. NOR.”
“My mother wasn’t a religious nutjob, but she was very dramatic about all sorts of s**t, including threatening to kill herself over it.”
“I was in my late 20s when she did her latest, ‘I’m such a s**tty mother; I should just kill myself.'”
“Something in me just was done with her **t, instead of trying to placate her, I said as coldly as possible, ‘Please do, it’d save me a lot of headaches and not having to clean up your s**t.'”
“She gave me the silent treatment for a few days after that, which was quite peaceful, then unfortunately, she started talking to me again. I wish I realized I could have cut her off with the rest of her relatives, but now I’m stuck with her leeching a** because I’m not evil enough to let her die in a ditch.” – LadyReika
“I’m sorry. Oftentimes, when a parent is not informed of their kids’ choices or is not in the loop as much as they should be, they ought to look inwards because they are and were the parent.”
“My mum will pray daily to God for my health (severely physically ill for years), yet I have received the emotional support the size of an atom. Praying for hours is all well and good, do it, I don’t care, but do they not realise the immense sin they are doing by not being there for their kids and being supportive in reality, where it actively matters more in those moments.”
“I feel like many religious people think being religious means being all in with praying and patience (even that is on a surface level a lot of the time) only, but they neglect the basics of most religions, which is to be considerate and kind in your character, speech, and relationships.” – Wild_Commission1928
“NOR. This actually feels scary, and I’d be scared to let my child around someone who speaks like this.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if OP has CPS and cops showing up all the time to do well-fair checks on her mother’s “grandchild” and then try to take custody away from OP.”
“They won’t win, but people suffering from psychosis do irrational sh*t all the time, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried this stunt.”
“If I were OP, I’d make sure my mother never has my address or phone number ever again. For my child’s safety and well-being. Don’t want ‘grandma’ showing up randomly demanding to see their grandchild.” – UncFest3r
The subReddit did not appreciate how the OP’s mother spoke to her about her pregnancy, her baby, and her life, and they were grateful that the OP made the decision to go their separate ways.
Family might be family biologically, but when they resort to hateful comments and wishing someone to a darker place, they really shouldn’t have a place in our lives anymore.