My sister is 11, I am 17, we live with our mother in Dublin. I am in full time education in 5th year studying for the Leaving Cert and do not work. My mother is a homeowner, unemployed, living off the government. My sister is in primary school, starting secondary school next September.
Our mother is mentally ill with paranoid schizophrenia and she is mentally, emotionally and physically abusive to me and my sister. She is an evil, disgusting, sick, twisted, cruel monster of a person and I hate her and have zero respect for her for the hell she has and continues to put me and my sister through for our entire lives. She mentally tortures us on a daily basis, using us as emotional and physical punchbags to take out her own sad existence, blaming us for ruining her life. She is most certainly mentallly ill, definitely with paranoid schizophrenia and possibly bipolar disorder, but she refuses to take any medication or admit she may have a problem. Last year I ran away with my sister so we could go and live with our father in Northern Ireland, but then there was court case where the judge decided my sister had to go back our mother. I thought my life was going to improve and I would finallly have a safe home where I wasn't abused and my dad would soon win custody of my sister as well, but it didn't turn out that way. My dad got engaged to a woman he knew for 4 months and before long she and her 3 children had moved into his house and my dad was now financially tied up to her, with her helping him pay the mortgage on his house, and they were always short of money even though they both worked full time and the house itself was absolutely disgusting to live in and extremely uncomfortable - I didn't get on well with my three teenaged stepsiblings or my stepmother, who all ignored me or were hostile to me for the most part, nobody lifted a finger around the house so I was like Cinderella doing hoovering and cleaning and all my clothes and stuff swere in Dublin because I wasn't allowed to bring them, but my dad and stepmother wouldn't spend a penny on me and it was my grandparents living nearby who had to look after me and buy me all the things I needed for school etc. And my dad lives under the thumb of his new wife, letting her treat him like dirt, abuse him, push him around and control the way he thinks and acts. I tried convincing him not to marry her but he wouldn't listen to me, just told me I was wrong and didn't know anything and that I was being influenced by my aunt, he just turned his back on me and would never even stand up for me from my stepmother's aggressiveness or do anything for me except let me live under his roof. So I decided I was better off leaving that situation and returning to Dublin. Apart from my mother, I'm happy in school and everything else. But my mother is still the same and still dragging me down, still having a negative impact on everything in mine and my sister's lives - we can't live our lives properly while she is abusing us like this. Police, social workers and counsellors have been aware of our situation for the last year or two but nobody has done anything to make sure that we're ok. I don't want me and my sister to have to suffer like this anymore. I'll be 18 next year but still in full time education and unable to work. My sister still has at least 7 years to go in this house. Will I have to drop out of school? What are the chances that we could go into care and our mother could be forced to get help for her condition? My dad won't help, he basically has the attitude that it's my own fault. He's not there for me. What are the chances that we could be placed with a foster family in the same area, not having to change schools?