My husband [36M], three children [10F, 7F, 4F] and I [28F] moved states to help my “sick” aunt [65F]. It has been nothing but hell since.

First, let me apologize for any spelling, grammar or format errors since I’m on mobile.

To start this off, my husband, kids and I have lived in Texas for over 10 years. Last year, our daughter passed away and it really affected our family. We were all lost and didn’t know where to begin to start rebuilding our lives. My aunt, we’ll call her Susan, offered a place in her home for us after our daughter passed, saying that it would be a huge help to be near family and that “that’s what saved her” after my uncle passed away. We declined at first, but over the last seven or eight months, she began telling me over the phone that she was extremely sick and could really use the help. She promised us her two extra rooms, no real worries about bills except just “help out every now and then when you can,” and the ability to start working toward rebuilding our life. Slowly, but surely, my husband and I began to talk about it, think it over and really consider it. We knew that we did not want to stay in Texas and began to think that maybe a move could be what we needed. Not to mention, I’d be close to the last of my remaining family, my children could have a “Grandmother figure,” and it would give us the emotional support we needed to heal from our loss.

We talked on the phone every day for hours, making plans and discussing what we’d do once we moved there. July comes and my husband was approved for a work transfer, we had our belongings packed, and everyone was excited to be moving. Our kids were overjoyed at the idea of having fun with their “auntma,” and I was excited about the idea of them learning about my own mother from the closest family to her. We loaded all of our belongings into a moving truck, loaded our three kids, two cats and Axolotl into our vehicle and set out to Florida.

We get to my aunts house and are met with the first problem. She’s a hoarder. I’m not talking about clutter on tables and shelves, I mean full on HOARDER. She has boxes and furniture and junk and God knows what else stacked wall-to-wall in the two bedrooms that she had offered us. My husband and I worked for over a week cleaning out one room, until we hit the first brick wall. Susan got upset that we had moved her estranged daughter’s clothes (they haven’t spoken in over 7 years now) and was really angry with us. We apologized and told her that we didn’t mean to overstep any boundaries and that we would not move anything else without her consent. She seemed okay after that, and began telling us what could stay and what could go, what could be packed or burned. Also, during this time my husband started work and was informed that it would be part time only. My kids also were sleeping on the couch and a mattress during this time because all progress on the second bedroom stopped. My husband and I started looking for an apartment but with living so close now to a college town, all of them were either full, subleases or out of our price range.

About three weeks ago, my aunt and I got into a huge fight over a door being unlocked in her house. She yelled at me over it and began degrading me over other, unrelated things. I am not good with negativity and will immediately begin to get quiet, so I let her yell at me for over 15 minutes. My kids heard it, and it scared them a lot because my husband and I don’t fight or argue. After she was finished, there was an extremely uneasy tension in the house and she then proceeded to “pout” in her room for three days.

Now as I said, we have two cats. My aunt also has two cats of her own, so my husband bought a large bag of cat food and it was for all of us to share. At some point while she was pouting, she took the bag into her room so my cats only had a little bit of food during that time. When she finally came out of her room, I asked her if I could get some of the cat food since my babies were hungry, and she flipped her shit again. It turned into another HUGE fight, she threw the bag of food at me, started screaming that I was “the devil,” and that I was just “using her for every damn thing she’s got.” All because of cat food.

Another three days of pouting or sulking in her room, and then suddenly she comes out and acts as if nothing had happened at all. She was so chipper and positive, wanted to go do things as a family, spent time with my kids and took them to church with her, and everything seemed to be going okay until just a few days ago.

Another fight, but this time, she hit me in front of my kids and knocked me into my oldest daughter. She swung at me a second time and I pushed her away from me and told her not to ever touch me again. My kids were screaming and crying because they’ve only ever seen violence on TV, and she screamed at them to “shut their goddamn mouths.” I told my husband (who was in the restroom when she hit me) that we needed to call the police and she suddenly starts saying loudly, “I didn’t hit you, what are you even talking about, you’re a damn filthy liar.”

I ended up filing a police report, was given the advice to file for an Ex parte order due to how she seems to just flip out over seemingly nothing. The officer I talked to seems to think that she has a mental illness and said that it would probably be beneficial to do since she has many firearms in the house, is quick to anger and obviously has a penchant for violence. It worries me that she does have guns in the house and seems to be mentally or emotionally unstable. She has begun doing other petty things like locking us out of the house if we go outside for any reason, kicking my cats or hitting them off of furniture, saying things to my kids about how my husband and I are going to hell because we’re not Jehovah’s Witnesses like her, and the list goes on. She’ll rifle through our things when we’re gone and today, I caught her doing something to the food that we have in the refrigerator. I don’t know what she was doing, but now it worries me to eat it or feed it to my kids.

We have been looking for a place as quickly as we can, and found an apartment that’s within our price range, but it won’t be available until the very end of September/beginning of October. Today while I was waiting on my kids to get off the bus, she put an eviction notice on my door saying that we needed to be out by September 18th, knowing full well that we will not have any place to go for nearly two weeks afterward. She brought her friend over and I overheard them laughing about “finally getting the stupid deadbeats out.” I don’t want to stay here any longer than we have to, but I also don’t want my children or our pets to be homeless, not to mention the furniture and personal items that we have here that would be lost. At the moment, it’s the five of us, plus two cats and an axolotl sleeping in a 10x10 room with one bed but we can’t afford to stay in a motel AND pay for the security deposit and first months rent. I don’t know what to do, Reddit. I know that after we leave, I am cutting all ties with her and she will no longer be a part of our life. I also know that it was a huge mistake for us to come here.

Oh, and by the way, she isn’t sick and doesn’t actually need help, she just wanted my husbands paycheck so that she could save her money to blow on whatever she wanted. He has given her money for all of the bills to pay them in full, we bought groceries so we weren’t eating her food, but yet she still demands $500 for the room that we’re staying in. When we brought up that we had paid well over that in her bills, she asked us where else we could stay for “free” and said that we needed to be more appreciative of her “generosity.” So I feel like we were manipulated and lied to, and now shit has hit the fan for us. She told my oldest daughter that we could go “stay in a fucking shelter for all she cared,” and makes fun of the fact that my kids will be sleeping in the car soon. I try to keep them in the room with me at all times because she’s threatened to hit them, and my kids are terrified of her. It breaks my heart to hear my four year old ask me, “Why did Aunt Susan hit you, mommy?” or “Why is Aunt Susan so mean to us?” My two older girls are stressed out and have been crying since they got home over potentially having to be homeless and sleeping in our car. It’s not fair to the kids, and I just can’t believe that Susan would do something like that to them just to get to me.

Honestly, Reddit, I would appreciate any advice on how to deal with this type of situation without getting hit or screamed at or worse, shot. Or advice on what to do around a toxic person like her?

TL;DR: Husband, kids and I moved states to help my “sick” aunt. Turns out, she’s not sick, just batshit crazy and a hoarder. Emotionally and physically abusive to me and my daughters. Kicking us out soon and we’re all going to be homeless with no place to go. Aunt thinks it’s funny.

Submitted August 31, 2018 at 02:14PM by MamaxMetal https://ift.tt/2C4EQgz