Evangeline Kippling – Transgender mom and meth addict dad
My parents were separated before I was even born and they got officially divorced when I was 1. My mom started dating women after that...and she also cut her hair very short and dressed kind of manly. My dad went to prison twice when I was younger for possession of...
…I was just filled with anger all the time. That’s all I really feel about my existence. Anger.
(Originally published on AnonymousUs) Growing up it was just my mom, my two very involved godparents and me. I always knew I was missing a biological father. I always had to explain to my friends since the age of five why I don’t have a dad. I liked it, I got...
Susan – I was 13 years old when Dad left the second time…Is it any surprise that I deal with depression?
My adoption was in the works before I was born. My adoptive parents had been married about 9 years and had been unable to get pregnant. My adoptive mother wanted nothing more than to be a mom. My bio-mother was married, but had been intimate with another woman's...
I hated growing up with gay parents
(Originally published on Reddit) Right away, I want to make something clear: I’m not a homophobe. My sister is gay, many of my friends are gay. If anything, even though I’m straight, having gay parents made me more comfortable with people in the LGBTQ+ scene. It never...
NPE Alicia – In the process of trying to help my mother and try to heal my family tree, I opened a larger wound. I suddenly did not know who I was anymore.
I have been watching several of your interviews and it feels good to know I am not alone in my beliefs and perspectives as a Christian and also as someone who has experienced childhood trauma, as well as an adult trauma of an NPE Discovery. For so long, I’ve felt I...
Sarah St. Onge – I needed a father, as do most other girls growing up in single parent homes
In 2016 I purchased an Ancestry DNA test. It sat on my counter for a week before I spit into the tube and mailed it out — sending my genetic material off into the universe, hoping to find some information about myself and where I came from. The idea was terrifying in...
Stephanie – I cannot express adequately how the trauma of my childhood has carried over into my adult years
When I was just a toddler, my mom married my stepfather. She had just dissolved her marriage with my biological father mere months earlier. My stepfather brought 3 of his own children to the marriage. He had been divorced from their mother. My baby brother was a...
Victoria – The impact of total abandonment by my biological father, and in part by my mother, has left me with emotional pain that still plays out today
My purpose in writing this is to explain some of the pain I have experienced by not having my mother and father raise me. I hope my story can be a cautionary tale for anyone considering sex outside of traditional marriage. In no way do I advocate for abortion. I am...
Samuel – I tried to tell her the divorce had really affected me, but she told me to get over it and that she needed the divorce for herself
I’ve been meaning to write about my childhood for years but I kept kicking the can down the road. No more. I shall divide the story of my childhood into two parts: the early years from 1998 to 2009 (parents’ divorce), and 2009 to 2015 (when I had an epiphany and began...
Alice – I spent my teenage years proving to him that I am worth loving
This was the day when my world fell apart. I was only 7 years old. It was early summer. My father was away for 2 weeks with his band and I was waiting for him to come home. My 10 year old cousin was over at our house that day. I remember my father approaching so we...
STAY INFORMED
Them Before Us is made up of ordinary adults who are committed to putting the needs of children at the forefront of the battle surrounding the very foundation of our society - marriage and family. Are you an ordinary person too? Does your simple blood boil when children are expected to conform to the lifestyle of adults because you understand, maybe firsthand, how hard that is on kids? And are you tired of culture framing adults as victims when we all know that kids are the ones who have to pay the price? If so, we are your people.
Join us. Stand strong. Speak up. Lose friends. All the cool kids are doing it.
Subscribe here and never miss a story, article or event.