Gaslighting within a Home

Tw: mentions of motherhood, mentions of children, mentions gaslighting, open discussion, questions and thoughts 

Now that the trigger warning has been set, My name is InsightfulPhoenix/Phoe. I would like to discuss a reoccurring dilemma that I have hardly seen discussed lately. Today's discussion is Gaslighting within a Home. Let's start this off with asking ourselves what is " Gaslighting" and what is an example of intentional and unintentional forms of gaslighting. 

• Gaslighting: When someone causes you to alter your perception, reality and thoughts
•  Examples of both Intentional and Unintentional gaslighting: 

1. Intentional: Imagine you are having a conversation with someone, you call them out on their behavior because of what they are doing towards you. You hear them mumbling, you then address the mumbling ( which you just heard) and they deny it making you feel like you hearing is out of tune. 

2. Unintentional: Imagine you are having a brief discussion with someone about a situation they were not a part of, and they immediately start saying that it's not really believable, but you as individual know it happened to you. However, since the person was not there they just don't believe it because they were never apart of it. 

Let's get into to the topic now, as a woman there has been many moments in own life that I have been gaslight whether intentionally and unintentionally. Without getting too much into detail over the event, I had someone intentionally gaslight me, because they refused to take accountability for how they made me feel. This person had me questioning if I was a problem for months straight, till I got educated and realized what I had just undergone was "Intentional Gaslighting".  This made me feel a lot better knowing that my perception, reality and thought process of the event that occurred that I was not the problem, the other person was. 

However, this did not stop the unintentional gaslighting from others', which is okay now because I am a stronger person for educating myself and continuing to do so. As a woman, I have noticed that we are prone to get more intentional gaslighting, just from the fact that others' are already often against us, talking down and very crass labelling. Which is not okay, of course we have came a long way as women, but there's a lot of respect that is still due. 

Mother's have it a bit hard as of late, it is like today's society expects a mother to tolerate disrespect within a home, just because it's either family or the biological father of a child. Which is not okay, a lot of these biological father's are crass, abrasive and some of them will go as far as to weaponize the child against the mother, just to see her squirm or cause her fear. This behavior is not okay, I was a victim of this myself and I am here to tell those have been through similar that you are strong and doing great, despite what anyone else says. Remember that sometimes no-contact is necessarily for your mental health and the wellbeing of your child, do not let anyone tell you otherwise🤗!

Questions: 

1. When was the last time you were gaslit? Was it intentional or Unintentional?

2. Why do you feel that some biological father's treat a mother this way?

3. How do you feel after reading this?