When I say be understanding and gentle with me, especially during the times when I am feeling too small to share my thoughts

Know that the mental and emotional abuse and constant gaslighting had just become a normal part of my everyday life. While that was everyday life for 15+ years things only became physical a few times.
It didn’t matter if I said the sky was blue, there would be an argument about how stupid and wrong I was.

See my previous post….

Almost every single conversation turned into this and the behavior spilled into my children to treat me the same. Even something as simple as me asking them to clean their room or help with household chores. He would come along and tell them they didn’t need to listen to me, and somehow managed to manipulate the situation and turn it around and telling them I was wrong and dumb.

I didn’t realize how much this would continue to play into my life and the relationships with my children even still 14 years after our divorce.