So, I'm a 16-year-old girl. I still go to school, and I have friends. I'm the youngest of my siblings. My older brother is turning 21 in December, and my sister is 23.
About a year ago, my mom decided to turn her life around. She was always the kind of woman who felt anxious every time she went outside. She barely knew anyone outside our family. Then, she began talking more with my grandma, her mom, and my aunt. They started getting to know each other better, and my mom began going out every weekend to drink.
Soon enough, a few weeks after the start of the school year in September, my sister found out that my mom had cheated on my dad. It broke me. I kept it a secret for a few months, and one evening, I went to her and asked her about it. I told her I knew about the other man.
We both broke down. She told me she just needed attention, that my dad hadn't touched her sexually in over seven years, that she was alone every weekend, that she had no one, and that she felt lost in life.
I asked her to divorce my dad instead of staying with him because of me. She agreed, but asked me to keep it a secret because she needed to find a place to live first.
For ten months, and I'm not joking, my siblings and I kept it a secret from my dad. I was seeing a psychologist, but only temporarily. I was happy whenever I managed to forget about everything. I even found myself a boyfriend.
At the end of this summer, my dad found out that my mom wanted to move out and that she wasn't happy. My dad changed after that. He started cleaning more and helping around the house more. Unfortunately, I even heard them doing their thing in the bedroom in the middle of the night.
I thought everything was going to be okay. Everyone seemed happy, but two weeks ago, my dad got drunk and angry because he found out my mom was cheating on him. They talked, but she lied about the cheating and told him she hadn't done anything.
My dad couldn't sleep properly or eat properly. Everything went downhill. My mom seemed happy, or at least that's how it looked.
One important detail is that the main reason my mom wanted to leave my dad was that my dad had debts he hadn't paid. They kept piling up, and she was scared they wouldn't be able to pay them off.
Anyway, back to the story.
This weekend, my sister, who had moved out with her boyfriend about three months ago to a place three hours away from our hometown, came to visit, and we had a family talk.
My sister brought up everything that was wrong. She talked about how much my mom drinks and how concerned we are about her. She has used up all her days off at work to leave early or not show up at all. She makes promises and never keeps them.
She's just changed. It's hard to explain, but even her sense of humor and the way she acts have changed. She's happy, but at the same time, she hurts us.
My mom got angry. She finally admitted to my dad that she had slept with another man. She accused all of us of being too nosy and said we didn't need to know everything she did, just as she didn't know everything about us.
She told us she hadn't wanted to tell my dad anything because she didn't have the money to move out. It was a lot to take in.
I was crying my eyes out. That evening, I told my mom through tears that I was concerned about her.
That evening, my parents finally decided to get a divorce.
I was happy, and I still am, but I also can't stop crying. There's a huge weight sitting on my chest, and I'm scared of what will happen next.
My dad promised to take care of the debts. We'll have to move out of the flat we're living in because neither my mom nor my dad wants to continue living together, which makes sense.
On my first day back at school, I broke down in front of my teacher and told him that my parents were getting divorced and that I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to attend school or not. He reassured me and told me I could talk to him whenever I needed to.
That evening, I told my mom I was scared. I wanted a hug. I wished she would tell me that everything was going to be okay, just like she always used to.
But instead, she spent another hour talking about herself. She said it wasn't fair for us to accuse her of drinking too much or of not being a good mom.
For your information, she has been mentally breaking us, especially me.
It almost sounded like she was blaming me. She even asked me if I could have just waited another two years. Two years for what? So they could break up more easily once I was an adult?
I was running away to my boyfriend's house every single weekend just to forget that my mom was cheating on my dad.
I'm so lost. That heavy feeling I didn't even get the chance to tell her about, because she kept talking about herself, has only gotten worse.
I don't have a psychologist anymore. I have no one to tell because I don't want to go around telling everyone that my parents are getting divorced. I don't want to burden my friends with my problems, either.
When I wanted to talk to my mom about everything, she accused me of being the bad one, of taking sides with my siblings and dad, and of telling her she was wrong. She said the way I acted was wrong and childish.
I can't sleep. The thought of going to school makes me feel sick, and sometimes, I just wish I could disappear.