My parents fell into conspiracy theories during the pandemic. My mum has been kind of conspiratorial for a while but kept it hush. My dad is very loud about it. They have entrenched themselves into the community. They live with several other people on their property who believe the same. They have attended anti-vax protests and have demonstrated. My dad shares this shit on Facebook all the time.

How has it changed me? I think it has improved my researching, scientific literacy, and critical thinking skills. Whenever they send things through, I go and look at the sources they provide. I have noticed a pattern. Whenever they use sciency sources, they are almost always:

• misinterpreted
• misrepresented (taken out of context)
• or they outright lie about the contents of the source The speed at which you can spread misinformation is much faster than the rate you can debunk it, so I don’t do it so much to try to change their mind but more to learn about and keep informed on the science myself.

I don’t know what to do. We are on good terms and I just try not to talk about it or ignore their remarks. I’m not good in real-time “debates”; I feel much more comfortable taking my time and writing responses or findings. My dad is also very assertive to the point of aggressiveness in real-time discussions, so I get a bit intimidated. Sometimes they surprise me with reasonable takes that remind me that they do actually have values.

My father’s a narcissist and my family waves it away. I’m fine with LC, he’s not, so I guess sooner or later it’ll turn into NC. It’s frustrating. He wants a relationship and says he’s willing to try, but he’s incapable of accepting any reality where he’s done something wrong or hurt someone. I’ve spent years trying to think of the magic words that would fix things but there’s no way around it.

As a person it’s made me more conscious of people’s limits. There’s a will on both sides for us, but we’re each limited in our own ways. I can’t be as tolerant as the rest of my family and he won’t be able to make progress without therapy that he doesn’t even realize he needs.

Mine are dead, but in terms of things I tried to do differently with my kids, as a mom:

Did not just put them in whatever school and figure they’d be fine.

Tried to be more physically affectionate, with varying levels of success.

Tried to be encouraging.

She was a good role model in a lot of ways but was not very mom-like at all, and we were just too different to really get along, My dad I got on with much better, but he died when I was a teenager.

What do I think my kids find difficult about me? Stubborn, I would guess, and the older ones suffered when I stayed with my ex too long, I am sure that they must resent me for not leaving sooner, his anger he took out on them not just me.

For me it’s boundaries. My mom especially has problems recognising when I’m setting boundaries, or doesn’t notice how serious I am about them. But I’ve learned to better communicate them and to act in a healthier way when they are overstepped (don’t get angry, but explain again that it’s a boundary etc.) which has improved our relationship a lot.

I think one of the key points of parent-offspring relationships is modeling. I didn’t have great parents and after some early struggles, I have learned what NOT to do. I try to shun violence, judgement, cruelty, substance abuse, etc for empathy, open communication, understanding, and friendship.

My mother will go through periods where she decides to fall out with everyone.

She’ll start taking offence to irrelevant things, accuse people of being out to get her, and just generally make mountains out of molehills.

I avoid close relationships with people as I assume it will inevitably end with a massive fallout.

I had a neglectful single mother and it has resulted in 1) me being independent to a fault and 2) me not being comfortable interacting in family settings (friends’ and significant others’ families).

My mom’s unwillingness to break with religion, or just not make it a requirement of the partners she picks, even though christian men all treat her like trash. She refuses to see how bigotry is a feature of the church, and not a bug, because she herself is pretty tolerant.

I guess I kind of consider my step dad to be my dad, though that will probably change if he ever figures out I’m trans, or have dated men. My biggest issue is his bigotry, as mentioned above.

These things made me pretty awful and biggotted myself for a while, until the stress of being a self hating queer broke me, and now I’m pretty anti-authority, and anti-bigotry.

I find the fact that both of my parents are dead to be a huge barrier to a healthy relationship. At this point we really have stopped communicating. /s (not really though, it is just a fact.)