đŸ’” What it means to have grown up with parental abandonment
Growing up with parental abandonment meant learning that the people who are supposed to stay can just leave—that there's no such thing as permanence when it comes to love.
You may have experienced the absence of a parent not as a single event, but as the air you breathed—an empty space where their presence should have been. You became incredibly self-reliant out of necessity, stepping up to fill gaps that missing adults left behind and developing strength most kids never had to find. But this early independence came with the constant awareness that people leave.
You may now find yourself always braced for loss, even in your happiest moments. You might hold back from getting too comfortable, too attached, or too hopeful, because experience taught you that good things don't last. Deep down, there's often a voice whispering that maybe you're just not the kind of person people stick around for, even when evidence suggests otherwise.