My mother kidnapped my son whilst I was in the midst of post partum depression. Today I found someone else who’s mother did the same and I feel like I can finally breathe because I can say “me too”.
As the title says, years ago, when my child was 7 months old, my mother kidnapped him at midnight whilst I was working the night shift at a care home. I had been diagnosed with post partum depression two weeks previously, and was working with my doctors, still working nights as my partner at the time wasn’t due to an illness.
I came home at 8am to be told “your mom has X”. She lived 3 hours away and I didn’t have a vehicle.
Do you know what I did? I got into bed, and only got out to go to work. My son was never in danger, but she took away my reason to not wallow, my reason to push through, and my reason to get better.
She returned him after a month, and actually told me off for “not being better”. It’s haunted me for 10 years, especially the fact that I effectively rolled over and prayed for death for a month.
After hearing another woman’s story today, I let out the biggest exhale, like I’d been holding my breath for those 10 years. I’m NC with her, and whilst I’m still under the care of my MH team (abusive upbringing for the win there mother) I’m doing much better, my child is happy, healthy, cared for, and knows he is loved. Most importantly, he feels safe with me, something I never felt as a child.
There’s no real point to this post other than to get it out of my head, and to also let any others out there that had a child kidnapped by family, that there are others who have had the same happen, because until today I genuinely felt like I was the only person this had happened to and felt like the worst parent for not fighting for him at the time.