'My Estranged Family Revealed My Dad Was a Monster...' -- Reddit Story | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

A person discovers that their loving and involved father had kidnapped a university student when he was a minor, leading to a shift in their perception of their parents.

Key Insights

• 🥰 Discovering shocking information about a loved one can shatter one's perception and create a sense of betrayal.
• 🥺 Family secrets can cause deep emotional turmoil and lead to reevaluating one's relationships.
• 🍝 The passage of time and a change in circumstances may make it difficult to fully grasp the motivations and implications of past actions.
• 👪 Therapy can be a crucial tool for individuals to process and navigate the complex emotions that arise from uncovering family secrets.
• 🧑 The impact of a family secret can vary greatly from person to person, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with the aftermath.
• 💨 History and cultural factors can influence the way individuals view and respond to family secrets.
• 💨 Trauma bonding and Stockholm syndrome are complex psychological phenomena that can affect the way someone perceives and reacts to their captor.

Transcript

my estranged family revealed that my loving family-oriented dad was a monster and this is coming from the subreddit true off my chest so they're not looking for advice or anything just kind of like getting stuff out there so this is last but not least guys this is a doozy growing up my friends would always say that my brother and me had the coolest... Read More

Questions & Answers

Q: How did the protagonist find out about their father's past kidnapping?

The protagonist's cousins dug into their family history and found a short newspaper article that mentioned the incident, which led to further investigation.

Q: How did the protagonist's parents react when confronted about the kidnapping?

The mother initially justified the incident, but later admitted to being scared by it. The father expressed remorse and claimed that he didn't realize the impact of his actions.

Q: How did the protagonist's brother and estranged family respond to the revelation?

The brother did not want to discuss the situation further and believed that it didn't matter anymore. The estranged family felt justified in avoiding the protagonist's family due to the father's actions.

Q: How did the protagonist feel about their parents after learning about the kidnapping?

The protagonist couldn't look at their parents the same way and agreed with their brother that it may be best to not know about it at all.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The protagonist grew up thinking that their parents were the best and had a loving relationship, but they discovered that their father had committed a kidnapping in his youth.

• They were shocked to find out the truth and struggled to reconcile their image of their parents with this new information.

• The protagonist's mother initially justified the incident but later revealed that she was also a university student at the time and was scared by the incident.