Jellybeans :
My parents never screamed.
I would hear my father say, “I'm sorry,” and my mother would simply go silent. My parents never put their hands on each other. But my mother would put her hands on me for failing a test, for not doing things exactly as I was told. I was always told that the failure would be beaten out of me because failure was never an option.
And on the days I was touched at four, five, and six years old, my parents still didn't yell.
I was simply held and told, “I'm sorry. I didn't protect you. I should have done better. I should have protected you.”
But those words eventually taught me something, too. They taught me to forgive. To understand. To believe that when someone says, “It will never happen again,” they mean it. To believe that an apology means change, that remorse means safety, and that the people who hurt you can become the people who protect you.
But sometimes, the words it will never happen again become a promise you spend years waiting to believe.
My parents never screamed.
There were no shouting matches to tell the world something was wrong. No loud arguments to expose the pain hidden behind closed doors.
But silence doesn't mean peace. An apology doesn't erase what happened. And a quiet house doesn't mean a child feels safe.
Because while the adults around me spoke softly, apologized, or said nothing at all, there was a little girl inside that house who had a thousand things to scream.
And nobody heard her.
My parents never screamed.
But internally, I was screaming.
2026-10-15 03:05:25