IanG

I hope things improve for both of you, and soon. It must've taken courage to share this.

Overall this is an evocative piece and you're right about nature having two sides. Regarding the beetles I'd have written 'not imprezsed' rather than 'not intimidated.' If they're fleeing thete's no question of them trying to intimidatd. Othetwise its a fine piece of writing.

A good opening and a nice twist.

I like this piece, your descriptions are vivid and the climax is a dtamatic twist. The relationship between the pets rings true.

If this is autobiographical, remember we are all a mix of strengths and weaknesses, faults and virtues. If things are hard now they may not always be. Other people may have issues they won't admit to. If their lives are perfect now they may have issues in the future. If you've made mistakes there's time to learn from them.

Nice twist at the end.

A convincing account of how a teenager would feel towards an absent parent. Love can exist outside of a biological family, people have found it when factors beyond their parents control, like war or natural disasters, have parted them.

When it comes to other families, people can have problems they don't share whether face to face or on social media.

Our time isn't the first when people have questioned traditional gender roles. It happened when men went off to fight in both world wars and women took over jobs that had once been theirs. They didn't do it to prove a point but to keep the economy going until peace returned. It happened when women first got the vote. That said, some people were nostalgic for a happy time years before and so tried to resist or slow the process of change.

I agree that change must come from within rather than by changing appearances.