Hi Reddit,
I don’t usually post here, but I’m really struggling and could use some perspective. I (18F) have been watching my mom (44F) fall apart physically and emotionally, and I’m honestly furious — but I don’t know if I’m overreacting.

My mom has been working for the same small business (a husband and wife team) since January 2022. She was hired to assist the husband with admin, but her role quickly expanded to include both of them — with no official job description. She just… adapted, without complaining.

Over the past three years, she’s been doing everything: Sage account admin, project admin, emails, couriers, business errands, personal errands (like pet care, watering plants, reading electricity meters), kids' school communication and admin, even helping plan their wedding and making professional portfolios for their side projects (interior design and the husband’s late wife’s art). She’s even slept over to help with their kid’s school event while they were away. It’s been endless — and she never says no.

Recently, her boss enrolled both of them into an interior design course, and my mom somehow ends up doing her own assignments plus her boss’s because her boss says she "doesn’t have the time." Again, my mom just quietly takes it on.

Now here’s the part that broke me.

A couple of weeks ago, my mom fell down our front steps while carrying her work laptop and phone. She hit the ground hard. Her first instinct was to protect the work devices, not herself. She went to work every day after that, even though she was in pain — until it got too much. This Monday, the doctor confirmed she had a whiplash-like injury with severe inflammation. She doesn’t have medical aid, but her boss did give her money to cover a few physio sessions, which we are grateful for.

But today… right before her first physio session, she got a voice note from her boss (the husband), asking her to account for every sick day and note from the past 18 months. Her face dropped. She looked completely defeated. Like her heart shattered.

For context, she’s only taken 23 days off since October 2023. That includes two weeks with COVID, flu, sinusitis, conjunctivitis, upper respiratory infections, and now a few days for her injury. That’s not excessive — that’s just life.

She’s been giving everything to this job. We’ve been struggling financially since my dad’s contract ended — he’s now driving for Bolt — and my mom’s income keeps us going. She’s never had a raise in three years. She shows up every day, even when in pain, and still gets made to feel like she’s not doing enough.

I watched her cry in bed tonight, trying to hide it from me. I can’t stand it.

She would never speak up for herself, but I want to. I want to tell her boss how unfair this is. How much she does. How loyal she’s been. But if I do, I know she’ll be embarrassed or upset with me — and she’ll never want me to get involved.

So…
AITA for wanting to call out my mom’s boss and say something?
Or should I just keep supporting her quietly like she always does for everyone else?