Her estranged mom sent a journal she’d written about her childhood hoping to mend their relationship—one heartbreaking entry pushed her further away

Trigger Warning: This article contains themes of child abuse that some readers may find distressing. 

When a person chooses to go no-contact with someone, it is often due to serious, life-changing events. A TikTok user named Jen, who goes by @maggiepotamus, shared a clip on June 23, 2026, recalling how she stopped speaking with her family three months earlier. Later, her mom sent her a journal containing her entries from the time Jen was a child. According to Jen, the journal was meant to convince her that her parents had done nothing wrong; instead, one entry proved the opposite. It confirmed that the woman had good reason to end ties with her folks.

Jen’s mother sent her the journal, hoping to prove that she had been a difficult kid and that the woman had done a lot as a parent. Instead, Jen found a series of disturbing accounts of child abuse and neglect. Recalling one of them, she mentioned how she was molested by her Taekwondo instructor at the age of 7, and told her parents about it. At the time, they simply had a heated discussion and did nothing further. In fact, they never even brought it up again for the next decade. When she mentioned the incident years later, her mother blamed her, claiming she had never disclosed it. To her surprise, one entry acknowledged that Jen had told her what happened. The mother even wrote that she didn’t believe her child and thought she was lying.  

For years, the mom insisted that if she had known about the incident, she would have taken action and protected her kid. The constant manipulation made Jen question whether she had ever disclosed the abuse in the first place. However, after reading the journal entry, she became convinced that her mother had lied and ignored what she had shared at the time. In the video's caption, Jen wrote, “It is biologically imperative to be attached to your parents. To break that instinct and disengage from them completely is only ever done as a means of self-protection.” Her experience is not uncommon.

According to USA Facts, data from 2023 showed that out of 4.4 million children involved in maltreatment investigations, 546,159 were confirmed victims of child abuse or neglect. Over 75% of perpetrators were parents. Around 2,000 kids died that year because of abuse or neglect. Child fatalities have increased by 30% over the past decade. 

How Jen felt when her own parents refused to believe that something so traumatic had happened to her is difficult to imagine. At an age when she was still trying to understand what she went through, she was left to process and heal from the experience on her own. And this was just one example. Commenters supported her decision to stop speaking with her parents, while others said her story reinforced the importance of believing children. @selunca wrote, “This is why I will always believe my kids over anyone else.” @casstok95 added, “What a gift that journal is. No more gaslighting yourself.” @hellokty77 remarked, “You’re doing the right thing.” 

If you know of any children who are being subjected to abuse, please contact The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at (800) 422-4453

You can follow @maggiepotamus on TikTok for more content on lifestyle. 

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