My parent is making me do all of her college homework for her but I don't want to anymore

I am a senior in high school and already have essays and things I have to do for my own grades. With all this extra work I find myself staying up until 12 a.m. every Sunday doing my parent's work when I could be getting rest for school the next day. It's like torture. I've told her before that I didn't want to do it, but when I do she stops talking to me, leaves without saying she's going somewhere, pretends I'm not around when I'm talking to her, and/or yells at me for being a "quitter." I hate it so much, and even though I do know most of the material, I already have so much high school work to do. I just want to give up. I don't know what to do. :'(

I think it might be better for you to get advice from someone who can be closer to the situation and possibly speak to your mother adult-to-adult. Is there another adult you feel comfortable talking to about this? Like an aunt/uncle, grandparent, guidance counselor, your dad...?

Generally, I don't like to tell people I think their parents are wrong... but your mother's behavior sounds really manipulative, possibly abusive, and certainly immature. She's the "quitter" for not doing her own work. It's not your responsibility to do her work. Wouldn't *you* get in trouble for cheating???

You might also want to talk to your guidance counselor about how you feel about her passive aggressive temper tantrums. At your age, it's really easy to learn that you have to please other people when they behave the way she does, and that can set you up for really damaging, codependent behavior to develop and cause you lots of pain in intimate adult relationships later on. PLEASE don't believe this serious guilt trip she's laying on you.

Talk to the counselor about strategies for what you should do when she ignores you... Should you ignore her back? Should you learn not to care? Should you act like it's not working... maybe she'll stop doing it when it stops working? Should you report her cheating to the school/professor? Talk to the counselor to sort through these things.

When you need to chat or vent, you can try www.crisischat.org. It's free and anonymous, and you can talk about anything you want with one of their counselors... as often as you like.