Emotional Incest

"Emotional incest is a violation and invasion of our emotional boundaries"

I remember the first time I heard the words, Emotional Incest. It was almost 2 years ago. I was telling James about some of the many things Grandpa did. James told me, "You know that's emotional incest?" I wasn't allowed to have space, boundaries or privacy. You know when you don't want or need a piece of paper and you throw it away? A lot of times when I threw something in the trash Grandpa would rummage through it and place some things out of the trash can on my bed! Sometime I would throw something away 3 to 4 times before it actually made it to the trash can outside.

I also knew how to work this to my advantage. If I had a school project all I had to do was leave the assignment out on my dresser. I knew that dad would look at it, decided to do it for me and I wouldn't have to do a thing! I remember the first time I did it on purpose. I was a junior in high school and needed to do a project for my history class. I left the assignment out to see what would happen. Sure enough Grandpa read it, decided what to do and did the entire thing for me! That also had MANY pitfalls. Like I could not leave my journal anywhere within sight, he did read it at least once that I know of before I started locking it up.

- more info about Emotional Incest to come!