28/08/2026
My [21F] mother [46F] hates my sister [6F] with Down Syndrome and blames her for our dad leaving us. She won't let me take custody of her and I don't know how to continue living like this
To preface this, we live in Austin, TX.
My mom was 39 when she got pregnant with my sister and a few days after her diagnostic screening confirmed it was a baby with Down Syndrome, our dad moved out and filed for divorce. Without my dad's income, mom had to sell our house and we moved to a different neighborhood. It was nice, but it wasn't an upper middle class neighborhood like the one we used to live in. During her pregnancy, she was committed to being the best mom to my sister (let's call her Mary) and me. A few weeks after giving birth to Mary who, other than Down Syndrome, had no other health issues, my parent's divorce was finalized.
Mom got full custody and dad got visitation rights twice a week, but I refused to see him and he didn't want anything to do with Mary. To this day, we don't have a relationship at all. Him and mom were never very hands on parents, I had a lot of nannies growing up, but I never thought both of them would end up being so fu**ed up. The finalization of the divorce hit my mom like a truck and she spiraled into postpartum depression. I was a high school freshman when all of this happened and, on top of having to move to a different place where I didn't know anyone, I had to step up and help take care of my sister because my mom couldn't do it alone.
While I was at school, she would do the most basic things like...