I just figured out something.  I figured out why our mothers will throw us to the wolves if someone gives them the least bit of attention.  I mean, not the attention part, but the "treating us as the same as some Joe Schmoe on the street" part.  Our mothers honestly don't see us as any different THAN Joe Schmoe on the street.  They are 100% lacking that differentiation that comes with family that the rest of us have.  Meaning: family is sacred.  I might treat a stranger like shit because they piss me off.  Especially in this day and age with social media.  I've said some pretty nasty things to people who've said nasty things to me.  But if that was my kid?  No way.  Or my husband?  Nuh huh.  There is a line you don't cross with family.

Yes, we tend to treat our families with less respect than strangers.  I get that.  We feel comfortable with each other.  But there is a line.

If my friend says horrible shit to me, or do something I don't like, like humiliate me, I might walk away from them for months at a time, or perhaps even forever.  I might even talk a little shit about them to my husband, but not to the extent a narc would (we all know what "talking shit" is to a narc---life ruining stuff!).  But if my kid did that?  I would get angry.  I might get really angry.  BUT I would never treat them like a friend who is disposable (yes, I treat friends as disposable at times...because some just aren't worth fighting for, but some are).  But a narc would.  AND the narc's idea of "humiliate" or "do something they don't like" would be trivial (like not drive them to the store the moment they want us to).  A narc would throw us away easier than we'd throw away a piece of garbage.  A narc would throw us away just as easy as you would a stranger.

Narcissists see us as the equivalent as strangers.  That's how self-centered they are: they can't even form a real bond with people because it's all about what we can give them or do for them or anything else for them.  If a stranger can't meet our needs in the moment, there's no reason to talk to them again.

 "Do you have the time?"
"No."
We walk away.

"Can I borrow your phone to make an emergency call?"
"I don't have one."
We walk away and go find someone else who can meet our needs.

We will cycle through strangers, until our needs are met.  The one who does, may become a future friend.  To a narc, they'd become a future source of supply. 

Everyone is a stranger to a narcissist.  

The funny thing is though, narcs will treat strangers better than they treat us.  They will humiliate us in front of strangers, friends, or loved ones in order to get a laugh or for attention.  They want the world to see them as perfect or funny or amazing.  But they don't care how we see them as much.  They just see us as supply.  We are their drug.  

But as soon as they can get a new drug (another source of supply), they will drop us, they way they'd drop a stranger they no longer to need anything from.  POOF.  They're gone.  They'll be back, of course. They always do, but only because they need your supply.  

But to know, whether the narc in our lives are our moms, dads, spouses, children, friends, or boyfriends/girlfriends, it's all the same:

To them, whether they're dealing with us or strangers, it's one in the same.