Reply #77: That just breaks my heart and enrages me at the same time

[Der Blaue Engel]

And it appears it was an "intact," two-parent family. Which begs the question:

How many of us that were subject to attacks like this as a child were the children of a single mom? I wasn't. Outwardly, we were this lovely little Christian "nuclear" family. Behind closed doors, it was another story. My father is a mean-spirited, small-minded little man, and he took out his anger at the world on everyone else. As the youngest, it all trickled down to me. Occasionally my mother would defend me, but she was getting constant verbal abuse herself.

To this day I can't quite shake the hateful concept of myself that my father inflicted on me. (And as a parent, single or otherwise, it has been VERY tough not to unconsciously fall into that pattern.)