“My mother was pregnant with her seventh child… and when I refused to continue raising her children, she called the police to have me arrested as if I were a criminal.”

The female officer stayed inside and asked me if I truly felt safe or if I wanted to return to that house tonight. I told her no from the most tired part of my soul, explaining that I was constantly threatened and blamed for everything that went wrong.

I told her about failing my classes because I was late or falling asleep while trying to study with a crying infant in my lap. “She is just being an ungrateful child who thinks basic chores are a form of abuse,” my mother spat with pure venom.

My aunt told her never to speak to me like that again as the sound of a second patrol car echoed through the quiet street. My mother turned pale and asked what was happening, and the officer informed her that I would not be returning home with her.

He explained that I had expressed a lack of safety and that social services would need to file a full report on the conditions of the home. My mother started to cry for real this time, wailing about how she was pregnant and how I was abandoning her in her time of need.