TIL my mom read my diary at 13 and now I can't write anything down without feeling sick
I was sitting at my desk in our house in Tucson when I found her reading it, just flipping through pages like it was the newspaper. She didn't even hide it. She just said she needed to know what was going on with me since I stopped talking to her. I stopped writing in journals after that, and I'm 29 now. Yesterday I tried to start one again, and I got about two sentences in before I felt like someone was watching me. It's wild how one moment like that sticks with you for over 15 years. My sister says I'm being dramatic, but she never had her stuff gone through. Did your parents ever go through your private stuff and act like it was normal?
Watching people tiptoe around their own parents' houses as adults never stops being sad to me. My old roommate would hide her phone in a sock drawer before visiting her folks, and she was 26. A guy I know locks his laptop in his car when his dad comes over. That stuff does not just go away on its own, it just turns into hiding things in new ways. What your mom did sent a clear message that your private thoughts were hers to take. No wonder your brain still hits the alarm button when you pick up a pen.