I lived with them my entire childhood. They’re half of the reason why I even post on this subreddit. They’re not physically abusive but treat kids like toys, loving when they feel like it, getting extremely childish and resentful whenever they don’t. They got a dog a year ago, which I mostly took care of at the beginning and clearly saw most of my childhood repeating. The dog was yelled at for tiny stuff, even for stuff dogs do (growling when he didn’t want to be touched in a certain way, annoying them when wanting to go on walks, ect), once when he didn’t want to take meds, instead of hiding them in meatballs like people normally do, he was forcefully grabbed, his mouth opened and stuffed the things inside while he was desperately trying to escape. All of his pleas were ignored. My father was just satisfied that maybe with that he will learn not to resist next time. They should have never had kids, NOR pets. Yet then the vacations a year ago ended and we separated. I moved out and stopped having contact except for weekends when I take care of the dog on my own and they just stay at the same place.

…with me taking care of all the problems I only get to see the “happy” version of how they treat the dog. It’s been without issues for half a year already and hell I have to admit, I did catch myself thinking maybe my parents had changed… maybe “the problematic kid moving out” made them less stressed so they’ll be decent pet owners now. DESPITE me knowing how they treated me. I recently got forced-awake by my sister casually mentioning how she feels bad for the dog getting yelled at every day… and how she’s trying to be especially gentle and teach him the way dogs are actually supposed to be taught. OUCH of course they haven’t changed… I was just dumb getting deceived by that. The irony is, I’m not even surprised I did. They buy the dog toys regularly, to the point they’re scattered around the place all the time. They buy it snacks and act all happy whenever he takes them. They act all happy and friendly whenever it runs to greet them every day. My father insults the dog in a loving way regularly… Just like the “good boy” version, just replaced with “idiot” or something the like. So then whenever he talks about doing it at home, no one believes it ever ACTUALLY has an insulting/degrading meaning there… I overheard a conversation he had with my grandma recently and he had absolutely no issue casually mentioning that “yeah, he yells and insults the dog regularly”… and she still genuinely believes that the dog was incredibly lucky and has the best owners there could be… and the worst thing is… I’m not surprised she thinks that way. Despite already knowing them, I already got deceived twice. FFS I feel like I’m starting to get an inkling why despite my cPTSD and me alienating so badly, hiding in my room all the time, not willing to talk, running away whenever people visited, barely caring for my clothes/appearance/well being why no one ever seemed to consider I might have been abused… sigh