Hi everyone. I’m Fiona. My parents disowned me
because of my Youtube channel. They said, “You’re no longer our daughter
so you can’t live in our house” They basically kind of kicked me out! How did it come to this? What did I do to make them so upset? I’ll tell you the whole story. First of all, I have to say that
my parents are super weird. I’m not exaggerating. Here are some examples of
what they used to do. Our kitchen would close at 8 pm. Literally closed, as if it were a store. At 8 o’clock, my dad would lock the door
and take away the key. My mom would announce
“If anyone needs water, you have 5 minutes to get it”
before he’d lock it. That happened every day
so I thought it was normal. One day, I was at a friend’s house
for a pajama party. Just before we went to bed, my friend said
“My mom left us milk and cookies. Let’s go to the kitchen”. I was so surprised and I naively asked,
“Is your kitchen open so late?”. I’m not into video games, so this other rule in our house was
mainly for my brother Craig. He wasn’t allowed to play Pokemon games. You know why? Both my parents are very religious. My dad read somewhere that Pokemon can evolve. As a religious man, he didn’t
believe in evolution. He thought that the evolution of Pokemon
supported the theory of evolution so my brother wasn’t allowed
to play Pokemon. And because of my mom’s beliefs, we weren’t allowed to watch
Harry Potter films or read its books. Because according to her,
the series promoted sorcery. Since sorcery is considered a sin, we had
to stay away from Harry Potter films and books. Those are just two of the things
we weren’t allowed to do. Let me tell you about their ridiculous punishments
which really put their weirdness on display. One time my brother forgot
to flush the toilet after pooping. When my mom saw it, she called him over. “You’re going to stand here and look
at your poop,” she said. She kept coming to check
that he was really looking. My brother had to stare at his poop
for 40 minutes! Finally, my mom yelled from the kitchen, “Flush it!” and he did. Later that day, poor Craig told to me, “No
matter where I look, I still see my poop.” I laughed at the time but looking back on
it, I think it was pretty sad. Now, here is one of my dad’s weird punishments. Whenever I got a bad grade at school, he would make me call all our relatives, and tell them what I got. He’d stand next to me the whole time. For example, he’d call my grandma,
and hand me the phone. First I’d say which class it was,
and then the grade I got. He’d say, “Apologize to your grandmother
for being a disgrace to the family.” So I would apologize. This was more upsetting
for my grandmother than for me. In addition to the weird ones, we also had
some harsh punishments. Normal parents usually tell their kids “You
can’t leave your room today.” With us, it was “You can’t come down from
the apple tree today.” You heard it right. We had to climb a tree and stay there for
hours as punishment. We had an apple tree in our backyard. That’s the one we had to climb. For example, cursing would be
punished with the tree. The amount of time we spent in the tree
depended on the curse word. You know what the saddest part is? When you grow up in a home like this,
you think this is normal. You think this kind of stuff
happens in every home. When I was 13 or 14, I started learning
more about my friends’ family lives, and I realized that ours was not
normal at all. This awareness made things difficult
for both me and my parents. I no longer accepted everything they said. So we’d fight all the time. They thought I was just acting out
because I was now a teenager. But I kept telling them that
they weren’t normal, and they needed therapy
every chance I got. I felt like a volcano that was ready to erupt. There was no avoiding it. I had to get rid of the lava
building up inside me. Otherwise it was going to harm me. During that period, I realized that sharing
was a sort of therapy for me. I felt better when I talked to my friends. But there were some things
I couldn’t tell them. I’d gone through such terrible things
that I was worried they would judge me even though none of it was my fault. The solution was right in front of me. I decided to create a Youtube channel. I wasn’t going to show my face or tell anyone
about it, including my brother. That way I would be able to share
everything anonymously. Where do you think I shot my first video? Sitting in the apple tree! I set up the phone’s camera so it would
only show the apples. I pressed record and started talking about
this apple tree’s role in my life. I let it all come out. It’s weird but I didn’t cry at all. I just talked. Then I uploaded the one-and-a-half-hour video
to my Youtube channel, which I called “The Girl In The Tree.” That night I felt completely relaxed,
and slept like a baby. The volcano inside me now had an outlet. After the first 10 days, the amount of views
on my video started to go up. I remember the first comment very clearly. “Did you really experience this or are you
just making things up?” A few hours later I got a second comment,
which said, “Please show us your face.” I continued uploading two videos per week. I got over 1000 subscribers. The 7 videos I uploaded had
a total of 9000 views. As my emotional scars were being healed, something
really unexpected happened. My brother accidentally came across my channel. He texted me right away. But I was on my way to a friend’s house
to work on a school project. So I didn’t see my messages. Craig’s dream was to be a Youtuber, and he thought that I made this channel
to become one as well. He was so happy when he saw
the number of views and subscribers. He was proud of me, and immediately
went to show our mom. When I came home, my parents were livid. Craig realized what he had done
but it was too late. My mom kept saying, “How dare you talk about
our private lives online?” My dad said “I didn’t expect
this from you. We’ve given you everything
– and you stab us in the back.” But the thing is I hadn’t exposed anyone. I had only told things from my perspective
without saying anything bad about my mom or dad. I just described what happened, and since it was my experience,
I had the right to talk about it. They sent me to my room. I heard them have a heated discussion. But I didn’t want to know what they were
saying so I didn’t listen. Three hours went by. I was getting ready for bed
when my mom called me. My dad said, “There is no way
we can forgive you. We worked so hard to raise you and this is
what we get in return! No punishment would be enough
for what you’ve done. So your mom and I have made
a really tough decision. We are disowning you. We can’t possibly call you
our daughter after this.” Disowning? I was completely shocked. I kept listening but it was like
I was living in a dream. I looked at my mom who was in tears,
looking down. I wanted her to say something so I said, “Mom?” But she didn’t look at me. She just shook her head. I knew how stubborn they are and that arguing
with them would be pointless. I’ve never seen my dad change
his mind about anything. I didn’t deserve this but there was
nothing I could do. I wanted to cry but I stopped myself. I didn’t want them to see me as weak. “So what happens now?” I asked. “Since you’re disowning me, I guess you
don’t want me staying in this house anymore.” My dad nodded. “We’re giving you a week to find
yourself a place to stay.” I could understand their disappointment but
wasn’t this reaction a bit over the top? Disowning and even throwing me
out of the house! They had two children but it looks like they
were okay with losing one. Why was I surprised anyway? My parents’ main issue was their inability
to be compassionate towards us. I’ve already told you how they punished
us for small stuff. I guess it was normal for them to overreact
like this under the circumstances. Now that I was kicked out of the house,
I had to find a place to stay. Being a high school student,
I didn’t have many options. Of course, I went to my grandmother. My parents probably knew that’s what
I would end up doing. Even though my dad is my grandmother’s favorite
son, she criticizes him all the time. When she found out what happened,
she called him over. “Fiona is just a kid. How can you throw her out of the house? She will live with me from now on. And I am disowning you too! Throw Craig out as well. I’ll take care of both of them.” My dad listened without saying anything. Then he just left. I’ve been living with my grandmother
for five months now. I wish they had kicked me out earlier
because I feel so good here. Craig stays over a lot. He says that my mom cries all the time
because she misses me. I’m not unforgiving like her. I’d go see her right away if she called. But I don’t think I’ll ever live
in that house again. I was really sad about having to delete my
channel, but then I stopped caring. Because it had served its purpose. It helped me share all that was
building up inside of me, right? Thanks for listening to me. If you like stories based on real events, subscribe to this channel. Bye.
