r/netflix • u/AnotherDarnDay • 2d ago

Discussion Unknown Number High-school Catfish Spoiler

What the hell did I just watch? And what the hell was this person thinking?

I'm in shock that someone would do such a thing to their own child. And that she doesn't seem to have any focus on what she actually did.

The daughter didn't seem to grasp what her mother did when they told her but the father acted on it right away.

Was she totally jealous of her own daughter?

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u/Silver_Start_4935 2d ago

I feel awful for Lauryn and am also reminded of people I know IRL who cannot cut a harmful parent out of their life. 

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u/BayPhoto 2d ago

It honestly made me feel like the grooming and overall harm the mother caused to Lauryn goes way deeper than just this incident. Dare I say almost a little Stockholm-like?

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u/Silver_Start_4935 2d ago

Yeah I doubt this was the only awful things she ever did to her daughter. Who knows what that poor child has been through. 

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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 1d ago edited 1d ago

It's actually pretty textbook for abused children, sadly. Google "trauma bonding."

Notice the stream of abusive text messages has been replaced by a stream of loving, affirming text messages? It's two sides of the same coin. She intersperses abuse of the most degrading, demoralising kind with floods of support and praise and affection. It's called 'love bombing,' and it's a form of coercive control.

She was probably keeping that 'love-bombing' up the whole time she was sending her daughter those messages, so she's trained Lauryn to believe that she needs her mother's love and support, and that it's so valuable it's even worth forgiving abuse for.

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u/BayPhoto 1d ago

Makes a lot of sense.