Tag: boundaries
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When I was young, and something had gone wrong with a friend, I would go to my mother wanting to be held. What I usually got instead was a question. What did you do? What did you say? She probably didn’t mean to hurt you, are you sure you understood her right? Look at your…
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For most of my life, I was the good girl. Good for my parents, good for my partner, good at work — where “good” mostly meant assistant, secretary, the person quietly making sure everyone else’s day ran smoothly. I didn’t choose those roles so much as fall into the shape of them, over and over,…
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I don’t have children. I want to say that at the start, plainly, because it matters. I’m not writing this from the inside of parenthood. I haven’t been woken at 3am by a small person who needs something only I can give — or had to strip a bed and scrub projectile vomit off the…
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Some people think resilience looks like pushing through exhaustion. Like showing up no matter what, always striving, always doing. Falling down and bouncing straight back up — faster each time, stronger each time, never letting anyone see the effort it takes. But what if that version of resilience is part of the problem? What if…