Dear Sugars,

I made a mistake. My daughter is 10 and has been a raging ball of hormones lately. During one of her daily “You don’t understand me and how hard my life is!” tantrums, I yelled, out of sheer exhaustion: “You don’t know a hard life! When I was your age, my stepdad used to hit me and touch me inappropriately.” I regretted it immediately and left the room. I told my

husband what I had said, and he thought I should talk to her about it. I didn’t. I chose to do what people always did to me, and I pretended it didn’t happen.

I haven’t stopped thinking about what I said. I know she probably thinks about it. I have had my eyes wide open her whole life, in the attempt to make sure what happened to me doesn’t happen to her, and somehow by yelling that at her, I brought that garbage into her life anyway. Do I talk to her now? Do I wait? Do I say nothing?

Mom With Foot in Her Mouth

Listen to the Podcast here.