Reply #137: Thanks HJ!

[mentalsolstice]

I'm way past my childhood. I'm 50+ years old and I'm happily married to a spouse who makes me feel completely safe. Watching that tape was like a typical night at my house, the only difference being the language wasn't foul, and in my case the belt wasn't looped, but was cut up the middle lengthwise. To this day my abusive parent feels that such punishment was deserved.

Now I have to deal with mustering the strength to deal with aging parents in a caring, humane way. The one who was abusive is constantly looking for reassurance that they were a good parent and doesn't want to deal with the reality of what they did. And it's hard for me to give that reassurance...unfortunately the day that parent dies my main emotion will be relief and feeling that I've been freed from some sort of prison.