The perfect daughter
I know, I am not the perfect daughter. I am not the daughter, you wanted me to be. I know you had plans for me, I know you wanted something different for me.
I have made mistakes, a lot of them. I never said I was perfect. I’ve spent too much money, I’ve said the wrong things, Raised my voice, made bad decisions, and lied about a lot.
But I know that I have tried my best, To be what you’ve always wanted me to be. I get good grades, I behave, I work jobs to support myself, I treat everyone with kindness, Jump at opportunities to give me and you a better future, I’m on a good career path, And I tell you I love you everyday.
Even though, You left me for months at a time by myself, Expected me to have surgery on my own, You called me horrible names, You wished I was never born, You said I was a burden, You said that your life would be much better off without me, and how you wished that was the life you had.
I know you were sad, I know you had nobody apart from me. And in your eyes, I was sucking the life, money and happiness out of you. I know it is not an excuse for the way you acted, But I understand how you feel and why you did, the things you did.
The time you smashed my phone into pieces, The time you threw me in the shower, turned on hot water to burn my skin and threw a mop and a broom at my head, The time where you locked me out of our house, The time when you locked me in my room so that I wouldn’t disturb you with a man, The time when you made me get on a motorcycle with someone I didn’t know, The many times you made me call someone ‘daddy’ to please them, The times you bruised me so bad, it hurt to move, The times you made me be a maid to whoever it was you were trying to please, The time you left me alone in the house with someone who had a knife and was prepared to use it.
But how about the time you let random men touch me in places I didn’t know were inappropriate? How about the times they kissed me and pulled my pants down? How about the times you let them drug me? How about the times you kicked me out, so you could be with another man?
How about the times I slit my wrist and you barely acknowledged that there was blood dripping from my arms? How about the many nights you heard me crying into my pillow? How about the times when I sat there, staring into a distance? How about the many times I kept failing exams because I was too sad? How about the whole time, I buried my head in books to escape reality? How did you not see me? How did you not see how sad I was?
How about the times you screamed and yelled, slapped, kicked and beat me with sticks and belts and chairs and remotes and anything you could find?
I tried so hard to be a good daughter. And I know you probably could make a list like this about all the things I have done wrong to you. But I never said I was perfect, and you always said that you were.
You expect me to forget everything that happened the first 18 years of my life. I act like I’ve forgotten but I haven’t. I don’t think I’ve ever forgiven you either.
You pushed me into a career I didn’t know anything about, you pressured me to get good grades, you beat me senseless until I was bruised, you screamed so loud my ears bled, you broke my heart every time you said I was a burden to you and you wish i never existed. You said you were a good mother. And in some ways, you were. But you also weren’t.
You couldn’t handle the truth because you blocked out the first 18 years of my life. It hurt you to know that I still remembered.
You gave up your whole life for me, but you’re also making me pay for it. You made sacrifices, but forcing me to make some of my own for you.
I don’t know, if this is love.
How can someone you love, treat you like this?
I never was the perfect daughter you wanted, even though I tried hard to be and I think that I never will be the person you wanted me to be because I am not clay that can be moulded, I am a girl, still trying to learn how life and love, works in mysterious ways.









