I don't know if I can add an update to my post itself because it would be over the character limit, so I'm just going to write here.

A lot of people seem to agree that it's weird and creepy, and a lot of other people seem to think it's fine because my mom's obviously okay with the cameras. I am not sure how to best address that because my mom is also someone who literally never says no to her husband. She pretends like she is okay with everything when she is around him. I've realized more and more over the past few years that she has grown into this type of person.

There's obviously a lot of missing info from the original post, because it's very long, but here are a few things that are important in this context:

-She occasionally gives me secret envelopes with a little bit of cash, and she puts them in a designated hiding place. The cash is usually in small amounts, like twenty dollars because she wants us to get our nails done together and wants to treat me to a manicure. The problem is that he doesn't let her spend money on "the kids" outside of birthdays and Christmas, so she opts to go about it this way. (Also, for more context, the money is from her bank account before they got married. She's not even spending the money that he's earned.) I don't ask her to do these things, but these are the lengths she goes to in order to give me, like, twenty dollars, so she can treat us to a fun time together. I have already told her to stop doing this, and I feel bad every time it happens. (Also, no, it's not breaking their budget. I'd estimate my stepdad's salary to be about half a million dollars a year.)

-Because of the pain of her illness, she spends a lot of time on the same couch that one of the cameras is pointed at. It's basically where she is the entire day if she is not running errands. She uses a heating pad, rests, reads, folds laundry, makes phone calls, writes to-do lists, etc. All from this couch.

-She panics when he's about to be home if she's even watching a show that he doesn't like. She'll change the channel so he doesn't have to deal with it. I honestly just thought my mom was being overly dramatic about stuff like this, because my mom does have very serious anxiety issues and tends to panic unnecessarily, but I'm starting to feel sick as I think about this more and read more comments.

-He makes them travel to his farm for every major holiday. (He has his own small plane.) His kids live on another continent, so he doesn't have to see them on holidays. These trips prevent me and my brothers from seeing my mom, though, because his farm is across the country and extremely hard to access. My mom currently lives in the same city as one of my brothers. I live a short distance away. Our other brother could easily come down to visit for Thanksgiving or Christmas so that we could all be together. Instead, we go to our dad's house every time, because none of us can travel across the country to the farm. My mom is absolutely devastated every time and has to spend holidays with no family members except her husband.

I recognized some of this happening, obviously, but I never really let myself think about how weird and awful I find this entire situation. I am upset about the security cameras for my own privacy, yes, but I also can't shake the fact that my mom deals with this all day every day and has no escape.

I am not sure what I will do, but I know I am not going to completely abandon my mom. Also, to those telling me to stop taking care of their dog, I consider him to be my dog too! We first got him when I lived with them for a few years in high school. I love him so much. He's got a heart murmur and is so close to dying. I want to spend as much time with him as possible.