I (18F) am reaching an absolute breaking point with my mom’s behavior. Ever since I hit puberty at 14, she has become hyper fixated on how I dress and act around my own dad and older brothers (22 and 24).
It’s honestly getting weird. If I’m wearing a dress and she hears my dad coming, she panics and tells me to "cover up quickly." She won't let me sleep in the living room if my brothers are there, and she’s constantly policing my clothes, my hair, and even how I sit.
The worst part She literally stops my brothers from play fighting or being rough with me because she’s scared of "unwanted touching." She keeps drilling it into my head that "at the end of the day, they are still males."
Her constant comments are starting to get in my head. I’ve started feeling tense and awkward around my own siblings, like I’m constantly being watched or judged. It’s like she’s over sexualizing my existence in my own home. I just want to feel safe and normal around my family without feeling like I'm some distraction.
My brothers have started to feel strange around me, and I feel the same way. I can't sit next to them without remembering her words or thinking that they might see me with a "not innocent" look, It's like I'm starting to see them as males and not as my brothers, I've even become anxious about any physical contact between us, interpreting it as not being a brotherly touch. It’s exhausting and I don’t know how to make it stop.