my boyfriend and I got together last year in october and one of his exes pressed charges on him for beating her during their relationship and another ex is pressing charges for assault as well and my boyfriend has to go to prison and i won't see him for a long time, how do i cope He is 29 and I'm 17

My mom has been a okay mom, and I'm not that upset that she doesn't approve of what I have been doing lately because everyone has their own opinions and beliefs. I don't live with her anything, but of course I want to make her happy since I am her only son. I'm still going to the concert, but I was wondering if maybe anyone had any tips to help her understand why it's okay for me to like anime girls more than real girls.

I smoke weed every now and then and my parents are super against it, so obviously I never told them I do, as being disowned is a serious issue. Today I came home from class and my mom and dad are sitting at the table eating, and my pipe, lighter and grinder are right there sitting in the middle of the table. So I just try to act cool and act as if it's not even there and proceed to eat. And we all go on to have a full meal and my parents are talking normally as if nothings happened either. I'm sure the stench is strong enough to reach them if only a little. They still haven't said anything and are chilling in their room which is right across the kitchen, if I go take the things they'll see. More importantly I think they already know, but they aren't saying anything. My mom even asked me if I could walk my dog (which she usually does), and when I was washing my plate I know I saw my step dad glance at the things for a second. I know you guys can't give me an exact analysis of what's going on and if they know, but any advice would be much obliged. 

Ever since I was around six, my parents always wanted me to become a professional violinist, just like my sister. Thing is, I HATE VIOLIN. I used to have piano lessons and I must say I prefer piano over violin, yet my mum made me quit piano when I was only on grade 3. I remember having an extremely strict violin teacher and whenever he said bad comments about my practicing, on the way home my mum would lecture about how much she was ashamed of me and wanted me to be better... I was always under the pressure that my parents expected better of me and that I let them down. I tried to make them proud, and the few times I did, it felt like heaven, but when I messed up, I was doomed for sure. I'm on grade 5 now for violin, but I must say it's getting hard trying to still live up to their expectations. My parents still scream at me if I don't practice for more than an hour. They compare me to my friend who is already on diploma for violin at ONLY 13 YEARS OLD. And I'm still here as a failure, doing grade 5. Since my parents started losing hope for me ever becoming as amazing as my sister, they signed me up for gymnastics so that I could be a professional gymnast and again, I HATE GYMNASTICS. I don't understand how everything that they force me to do is something I hate... the pain I go through trying to do splits etc is crazy. I can't even do a forward roll properly and that's a BASIC GYMNASTIC MOVE. All this pressure is just crazy and I want the pain to end. One day hopefully.

I am getting sentenced next month and will be geeting 2-4 years in prison, y family are sticking by me but it is very hard for them and I know that. My 2 sons are 10 and 8 and I hope I can still be a good Dad to them despite what has happened and what I have done. I just want to do all I can to make sure they do well at school, don;t get a hard time and don't make the same mistakes I did when they are older.  Has anybody been in this situation or have any advise? Do you think it is good for children to stay in contact and visit their father if he is in prison?

The father of my 2 year old wants nothing to do with him. He barely comes see him, he made up his mind to not be a father to him. He's on child support now and threatens me everyday pressuring me into dropping the case, trying everything possible to get me in some kind or trouble so she wont have to pay. He's mother however wants to be in her grandson life. I understand she has nothing to do with her sons behavior but if I want to move on and forget about her son, letting her into my son's life wont help that process. I've gotten to a point where I want  nothing to do with him or his family.  I have nothing against his family but what's the point of taking my son to see them if his own father wont step up and be responsible.

we have been together 8 whole years, he's always been there for me, comforted me, loved me, even cooked for me, and we were even planning a marriage soon, basically what happened was we were at the grocery store with some friends and he picked up some salsa and i told him i thought he didn't like it but he said he does and i kept saying you always tell me not to buy that and he denied it and we just dropped it because friends were with us but when we got home, my boyfriend started screaming at me for embarrassing him in front of the friends and we argued a bit and he got so bad he grabbed me and shoved me towards him and beat my head hard with many bruises and then shoved me away, he then immediately said "oh my gosh, i'm so sorry how could i have done this" and started crying on the floor and of course i comforted him and he apologized so many times and promised it wouldn't happen again, i'm not sure if i should move on or forgive him or if i should break up? my head still hurts bad and it hurts really bad to move my neck because he bent my head in a weird angle 

My stepmom wanted me to have nothing to do with my mom she would always find selfish ways to prevent me from contacting my mom and seeing her as well my parents divorced in 2010 my mom got married to my step dad and my father got married to my stepmom my step dad is the best thing that could ever happen to me he helped me through hard times and was a better father than my real dad I wanted to live with my mom but my stepmom forced me to move in with her and my dad she also like I wrote is trying to make me cut of contact with my mom she won't let me talk to my step dad she won't even let me go to my mom and step dads home for holidays she wants me to herself she also wants my real mom out of the picture so there was no way that my parents can't get back together she also forced my dad to call my step dad and told him I was sick and I cannot come over she also finds away to prevent me from going to my mom and step dads house I have had enough of this so I decided to find a plan I went to my room and beat myself up then I went to the police and lied saying that my stepmom hit me the police came to my house and questioned it my stepmom tried to denied it and then the police made her admit it she falsely agreed and then they put her up behind bars and then During court I lied again and my dads parental rights were taken away and I was placed with my mom and step dad my dad called me and told me that I was a terrible daughter for getting his rights as my parent taken away  Continue: and hopes that I can live with what I can I told him "that's what you get for allowing your wife for not allowing me to have contact visitation and seeing my mom and step dad" and hanged up the phone we also got a restraining order against my dad and stepmom did I do the right thing or did I do the wrong thing thing? I only wanted to get away from my dad and stepmom because my stepmom is also a narcissistic asshole 

 I am 20 years old. I met my fiance 2 years ago while I worked as a waitress. He was a regular customer.  He flirted with me and tried to get me to date him for like 4 months. But I did not want  to date him because he was older than me (12 years) and he was from another country (Scotland) with plans to move back at some point. But eventually I decided to go on one date so he would stop and he seemed fun.  We ended up hitting it off and we started dating. I met his 2 sons (6&7 years old) and then during the summer he asked me to marry him and I moved in.  Everything was going well and his parents came down from scotland during the holidays and we all got along. After they left he started getting more edgy and drinking a bit more. Sat of this week I went with my sister to go shopping and he had his kids that day. I arrived home and his kids had already left and he was extremely drunk. He started fighting with me over a movie that he wanted to watch but couldn't find. I decided to leave the situation and go up stairs. But he follows me up. He starts calling me names out of nowhere and grabs me, lifts me up, body slams me on the bed and starts smacking my face. I asked him why and he had already passed out. I grabbed some clothes and went to  friends. I haven't been back but he keeps calling me.  He said it was pressures from work and his ex and family. That he loved me.  He has never been like that before. Should I give him a chance to see if that was not really him? 

Hi, I am a 16 year old girl. For majority of my life my Mother has been an alcoholic along with a lot of family members like my aunt and uncle. I've lived with this for a long time. For as long as I can remember me and my cousins have dealt with this My mother has gotten worse and worse over the years. I know she is not doing well her hair is thin and falling out, her skin is dry and her nails are brittle and when she gets drunk she has alcoholic seizures. despite this she continues to remain in denial about the situation. I've mentioned this to her many times more then I can count but every time she gets angry no matter how I approach the situation she gets defensive. I don't live with her anymore I live with my Father and step mom which I like living with them. I can't help but worry about her while I'm not there though My step father works opposite shifts to her and she's ends up being alone often. She has everyone wrapped around her finger because she can be a functioning manipulative alcoholic when she chooses she knows how to twist a situation and make her seem like the victim every time. I am afraid that she will die in the not so distant future and I will have to live with the consequences of her selfish actions. I've tried talking to her about going to rehab but it's no use, I've talked to my family but they said there is nothing they can do. I'm angry and frustrated but mostly tired. I don't know what to do.

They don't let me know sometimes when someone is visiting. They are ignorant of how special it is for me. My Dad especially leaves me out.

i'm sick of it every time i see him at youth group he avoids me and doesn't talk to me. a little more then a year ago i would harass and stalk him online everywhere because i was obsessed and he reported me so i stopped but he's still avoiding me even though i'm sorry and he won't talk to me

I live in a suburb of Los Angeles and I don't drive. Because I don't drive, I have to take public transit. Traveling into the city of Los Angeles, I know it would be much easier to spend the night in a hotel. I won't worry about logistics with transportation later in the night. I am 23 year old female and I live at home with my parents. My mom in particular is a very overprotective, controlling, helicopter mom. I know that as soon as I inform her of staying at a hotel, she will go on a rant about how the neighborhood is shady, prostitution, drugs, gangs, and more. I don't make a lot of money so I can only afford the cheaper hotels. My mom also makes me pay rent and tries to control how and where I spend my money. I know that she will be opposed to more expensive hotels even if they're safer. It's because she doesn't approve of me traveling and approve of me spending money on hotels at all! My mom is also agoraphobic. She doesn't really understand why I want to be independent like this. Anytime I travel far, especially into Los Angeles, she expect me to be with my dad at least. One of her counters to what I want is that she will just rant about how she wants to be included in what I want to do and do stuff as a family. The reality is that I need my space and have experience being on my own. There is some counter arguments I can use to mediate the conflict? In the conflict even be mediated? 

Can someone explain sibling rivalry to me? I am an only child so that concept is totally foreign to me. My husband has 2 brothers and they always try to out do the other. If one get something, the other 2 try to get a bigger and/or a better or more expensive one. No matter what it is they will waste a lot of money trying to out do the other. This makes no sense to me. Why do they do that?

My grandmother saw me recently and she said that she can't get over how beautiful I am, and I'm not sure what she means.

My stepmom keeps preventing me from contacting and seeing my mom I have had enough of my stepmom not allowing me to see my mother so I decided to fake an injury I beat myself up and went to the police I lied to the police saying my stepmom hit me I showed the police fake proof so the police went to my dad and stepmoms house the police questioned my stepmom I forced her to tell she admitted that she hit me even though it is not true I also lied to the police that my stepmom and dad within 3 days the police escorted me to my mom and step dads house my step dad and mom filed a restraining order against my dad and stepmom I now live with them Did I do the right thing by lying to the cops?

My husband and I have been together for 3 years. Our first year of dating we lived with his mother, 18 year old sister, and 20 year old brother. It was a very tight small house for 5 people. It was a struggle but his mother let us stay for almost a year while we got our funds up. Bless that lady.  Some insight about his family: no dad, all grandparents are gone. 1 uncle who died with no kids.. so no cousins. His family is his mother, sister, and brother who I lived with that year. That's it! So I understand that's all he has to keep together at this point. I have an abnormally large family. I'm all about family so I wouldn't argue this. Also, I get along with his family fine. Mom & brother really like me, the sisters.. eh.  Now we are moved into a place, the mom wants to come over all the time now that her "favorite" son is gone.. she talks about finding a big house so we can all live together happily. Her younger son has social issues and some retardation where she states he'll live with her forever.. and the sister doesn't care to graduate high school and has attitude issues so she's not really going anywhere.. so my husband was kind of the "star" child to go and now the mom wants to take him back almost and plan his future around her? The sister doesn't respect me enough where I want her in my house at all, or her living with me. My husband doesn't really talk to me about this and tells me not to worry but I'm not trying to do this? And I wrong for feeling this way?

Both grandparents are elderly. My mother loves them like her children. When they die she will feel like she has lost two children. She has a strange obsessive relationship with them but it makes them close. She has siblings but one hates her parents and the other three are men and so they aren't as close since they are married to their in-laws. My Dad even neglected his parents at times in order to please my Mom and thus her parents. When he married her he married her mother. So anyway, both are going to be in a deep state of depression the first few Christmas'. How can I keep myself from getting miserable? This past Christmas my sister was being abusive and an uncle who is getting divorced was over and that alone made everyone depressed. My grandfather said "Christmas isn't fun anymore without little kids". I can't imagine how miserable they will be when the grandparents have died. It will be like a funeral for a child.

She is the only person I know that does not have any redemptive qualities. If she died in a car wreck the only sadness I would have is sadness for my parents. Otherwise I would laugh. So how do I act when I have to be around enemy number 1? I occasionally have to see her at family events.

So i recently moved back home after splitting with my bf.  So my younger brother is 24 and hasn't worked In over a year he basically lives off my mum for money. His gf sleeps over often and they smoke pot in his room. Followed by sleeping in until 3pm. It's a bad lifestyle and I feel annoyed at him for this because he doesn't contribute to helping my mum around the house with anything or help pay bills ect. they make noise late at night and it keeps me awake sometimes.  How do I help the situation ? Advice 

When I was younger I went on to get a BA degree and my older sibling ran out and got the same degree as me. Years later, I started a business and my sibling went on to start the same exact business as me and even pitched some of my clients. I feel like it is my fault for sharing to much information or my knowledge. Is it me or are they copying me? Should I trust now telling them my next move? Why do they copy?

I was in the sauna with my parents who are 35 and 37. I got turned on by my naked mom and had to leave.

Some bad guys broke into the house while they were gone and I had to fight them off. My Mom called the cops but with the phone lines down no one could find me. This happened in 1990 so at the end of this year it will have been thirty years, yet I still have this trauma. 

I am 17 years old and have been somewhat reluctant to go on family vacations since I've entered my teens. My family has a vacation planned for spring break, and I am required to come along. From the point that we leave until we come home, I tend to experience a lot of travel stress and I get into many fights with family. My mother says I make everyone miserable when we go on holiday, and she wants me to change my attitude for the upcoming trip. I know it's normal not to want to go, but how can I make this trip more painless if I don't have a choice?

I'm so angry.  My sister just got back with her abusive ex. He used to scream at her and call her names, my nephew would get so scared he would hide in the closet. We got rid of him when he went back to jail for violating his parole but now he's back and it's like my sister fell inlove all over again. It's like none of this ever happened.  She's literally 31 years old but has the mind of a teenager. She finally got her own apartment, her own car, and is going back to school and now she wants to fall back into this.  Can anyone relate? What should I do?

My son is the youngest child in our family. He expects his older brother & older sister to do everything for him! As a parent, I don't think this is ideal for him. My son is less mature than most kids his age. He forgets everything (to return library books, his jacket, his homework, etc). Socially, he's a little delayed as well. My son lacks friendships because kids think he's annoying. My two older kids were years ahead in maturity level at his age. Every child is different but they should generally develop at a similar rate. I worry that because he likes to be babied by his siblings, he'll also mature slower. 

I thought if someone wear revealing clothes then they get attention but I saw in many stores that men look at women wearing tight clothes even if it covers their body. 

Ok so, this is new to me. I've never been asked to go to a wedding away from where the people lived.. so my sibling is getting married and I've just been informed it'll be at a resort town historic, about an 8 hour drive from where the couple and most their and our family live.. (but not me as I'm in another state) I have a young kid of my own and I've always been the one to travel to my home state where him and my whole family live this whole time.. in fact, my sibling hasn't come to visit me since my child was born. (Almost 5 yrs) it's always me driving to my home state to see everyone or for holidays ect (that's an 8 hour drive itself) so basically my sibling has chosen to get married in what would come out to a 2 day drive one way for us. I love my sibling and am supportive of his relationship, there's no drama with his finance or anything but here's why this DW has really been bothering me.. my sibling lives about 20 min from where my mom lives and like I said, I'm the one that comes to them and have since my child was born. So I end up driving a whole day with my small child to visit, and he's done nothing but complain for the past several years about how he doesn't want to drive that 20 min to my moms when I'm in town.. I'll come a week sometimes and he won't come by once.. I've come for 2 weeks last summer and he maybe came to see my kid and me for a couple hours once or twice. Now this is going to be expensive for me and take about a week of my time. It feels rude? 

So my wife's daughter is pretty spoiled & gets bratty at times. I love the kid to death but I refuse to baby her & give her things when she doesn't deserve it.  This has been a challenge for going on a year now. My step daughter is starting to resent me while mom is around, but is my best friend when mom isn't around. It makes me feel like a shitty step parent that my step kid can't be cool with me when mom is around. I know I'm doing nothing wrong, but it still makes me feel like ****. My wife & I argue about this ALL the time (when we are alone). She knows she's doing wrong, but she does little to change it.  I'm to the point where I don't even want to be around both of them at the same time because it's mentally exhausting & I just want to enjoy my time or day. Both of MY sons are getting annoyed with it & they kind of don't like being around my step daughter. My sons are very well behaved & very well disciplined.  What should I do? I'm going bonkers now

So why can't I date?

he/she looks like a child in their profile

I am 18 F, but am in my last year of high school. My mom started dating this guy a couple years ago and is happy with him, but a lot of the times it feels like she neglects her responsibilities to me and would be happier if she were not responsible for me. She goes to his house every night or goes out to eat with him but does not leave things for me to eat at the house or will act put out when I say I need something to eat for dinner or lunch and has told me before to just "figure it out". I do not have a problem cooking but it is hard to do that when there are not many things in the house. Often times my sister who is 21 in college will end up buying me food or offering to buy groceries because sometimes my mom does not. I am not very open with how I feel but one time after expressing that I wish she would do more(I admit it could have been executed better because it was relatively aggressive and was out of frustration), she said that some things my sister and I think she is supposed to do as a mother she does not actually have to do. She then said that I did not do the things I was responsible for either(putting up dishes or cleaning room), but I feel like feeding me and making sure I have clothes and such when it is difficult to do myself is different than me not cleaning my room.I do not mean to sound unappreciative and I know others have worse problem than I do, but it is becoming increasingly frustrating. Thoughts?

I have a big field trip coming up, and I asked my dad to be the chaperone for my group. I'm quite young, and I'm at "the age" where its normal for me, as a male, to have female friends. I invited 2 female friends (nothing more than friends) to join my group. They accepted, but now I'm starting to worry about my dad's reaction to them being in my group. I know he won't be upset, I'm just worried he will think I like them and he might ask me about it. I'm also concerned he might think I'm gay (although I'm not) due to the common idea that gay guys have female friends, especially at a younger age. Keep in mind, not everyone in my group will be female, just those two friends. I'm not implying that I expect him to be concerned or upset. All I'm asking is for advice in which case he does turn out to think I'm into these girls, because if he does draw this conclusion, he will ask me about it. Under that scenario, what would be the best thing for me to reply with?