He said I was coddling her and that she needed to learn responsibility. I said she was responsible and that he needed to back off. He didn’t back off. He started making comments directly to Lily. He’d ask her when she was planning to move out. He’d tell her that most kids her age were already thinking about their futures.
He’d mentioned that his parents kicked him out at 17 and it was the best thing that ever happened to him. Lily started spending more time in her room. She stopped coming downstairs for family dinners. She stopped talking to me about her day because she didn’t want to run into him in the kitchen. I watched my bright, happy daughter turn quiet and anxious, and I blamed myself for not seeing it sooner.
Last month, everything came to a breaking point. Lily was in the living room doing homework when my husband came home from work. He walked in and saw her sitting on the couch and something in his face changed. He told her to go to her room because he wanted to watch TV. Lily said she was almost done with her assignment and asked for 10 more minutes.