Did you grow up with both biological parents?

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@ragingloli Come on raging, it’s in YOUR user name, let us KNOW you! hahaha

I did, yes. Both parents are still happily married. I’ve always been very close to my dad. I had a fairly conventional and placid childhood. My parents had some conflicts, but nothing major and they never fought. No known rage issues or violent tendencies in me. My mental health isn’t flawless, but whose is? I have some degree of OCD and anxiety, but it’s relatively mild.

That’s about all I have to contribute at the moment. I do sometimes imagine the extent to which I would be a different person had I not had the upbringing I had.

I grew up with both parents. My father was in management and my mother stayed home. They provided me a comfortable life and I felt loved. My mother passed away just a few weeks after their 45th wedding anniversary.

I was raised by both biological parents. Until I was ten they worked opposite shifts and didn’t see each other much during the week. Friday and Saturday nights though were theirs. They went to a lot of disco clubs.

When I was ten, mom started working days so they stuck a house key around my neck and said good luck. I saw them less and less after that as I was always out, exploring the city on my bike or by train.

Mom could be fun and goofy, but had a mental illness she refused to acknowledge or treat. As a result she was prone to violent outbursts and emotional abuse. You would have thought my nickname was “piece of shit”. She also lied, pathologically, about anything and everything.

Dad was mostly great and taught me a lot. Unfortunately he was unable to stand up to mom and would regularly fall apart crying at her outbursts. He also liked his drugs a bit too much.

When I was fourteen, my mother told me she wished I was never born. When I was fifteen, she said I could stay at the house, but they weren’t giving me any more money for anything. So I quit baseball (which I’d played for ten years) and got a job, lying about my age so I could work more hours.

I met my now wife when I was sixteen and then started college at seventeen. While I still lived at home, I practically moved out being gone from 7AM to after midnight every day. Sometimes I would sleep at school, staying in the art studio.

It worked out okay though. I have plenty of street smarts, paid my way though school, bought a house, and married my wife.

Lots of crazy stories with mom and dad after that (she threw him out when he was diagnosed with cancer), but you get the idea.

He’s dead now and I have no idea where she is, but I think she still lives nearby.

Yes. My parents got divorced when I was about three years old, but both were around and spent plenty of time raising me.

I grew up with a single mom, dad wanted me aborted. Mom went from church, to bar fly and dragged me along. Lots of bad things happened from 13 to 17, so I moved out.

My emotional scars are not very evident unless you know me well. I trust no one, I trust nothing I love to anyone. I am an overachiever and never feel good enough, much like other friends with abusive parents. I’m honestly never going to get over things done and said, but I moved on. Mom and I are friends and now I’m back to being the parent of a 63 yr old in some ways. Just like 13 yr old me. It’s tough because the drugs and alcohol have wreaked havoc on her plus some depression. I think she wants us to be close but I’m fairly certain I’ll take care of her, but close to heror anyone is not really feasible.
I have a lot of love to give to kids and animals, even socially, but my inner child is still terrified to not be in control. Also a little ocd, especially financially, I refuse to be vulnerable in almost every way. But I read psychology and try to do better every day. Helping the helpless is my passion.

PS I had rage issues that led me to a gang of other damaged people. I finally felt safe until they tried to force me to shoot up, which completely freaked me out. So I moved and started again, found love a few times and now am at peace, or what to me is peace. Security.

18 years with each parent.

Yes, unfortunately. My father was abusive and my mother was neglectful. I ran away a lot. Had sex, did drugs and drank, but I managed to get through my adolescence relatively unscathed.

I am so not violent and not prone to rage. I abhor the suffering of others; I’m a frickin’ vegan. However, I do love violent movies, horror movies, and I never shy away from this type of entertainment. Maybe I’m just not violent by nature. Maybe it’s just because I never want to be like my father. I just don’t respond to fear or anger with violence.

48 years with both my sweet parents

Both biological parents were wonderful and continue to be. Still happily married. Looking back they did everything perfectly. I am profoundly thankful for them. If they could be cloned and raise every kid in America there would never be a single school shooting, ever.

I grew up with my biological parents. In many ways I had an extremely fortunate childhood, and I would feel wrong to not acknowledge and appreciate that. In other ways it was quite painful, much more than it needed to be.

Yes, although until I was almost eleven my dad was at sea for probably half of the year every year (not all at one time but multiple month trips). Caused a few problems when he finally got a job on land and I was not used to having a full time father. Only me though, my younger brother was six when dad came ashore for good and really doesn’t remember a time when he wasn’t there. Little sister never knew it any other way. They were both much closer to dad than I was, even in adulthood. We still loved each other but there always seemed to be a distance between us.

My kids both grew up with my wife and I. We used to apologize to them because they only had two parents and four grandparents while their friends had multiples of both.

I grew up with both and so did my children and my husband grew up with both. I believe it lays down the ground work for children to see what is necessary to have a successful relationship. Of course it has to be an example of a good marriage. I understood by watching my parents that marriage is much like a business relationship with feelings and personal understanding of each other, respect and deep caring. I was a daddys girl and would often clash with my mom, but I found no fault in their marriage. There was always genuine care even when they disagreed. I saw who they lifted each other up and they never had a contest about who is better or does more. They both worked hard to raise a family and divided the work as even as possible. My mom may have worked harder but that was because she always had good health, and my dad had a long term illness, but he still worked hard.

There were 5 children in my home so there was no shortage of teen rage at some point in our lives but it had more to do with outside influences and hormones and competition with siblings. But not the kind of rage that makes anyone want to shoot someone else.

I actually think a lot of the problems with kids today may also have to do with not having siblings. Siblings is a curse and a blessing. They can be super annoying. But raised correctly they can also be a blessing. You come with a set of blood friends that will always take your side against the world. It’s your own private gang. We all fought but we often would bond when we had to go against someone from the outside who would bully one of us. So we didn’t need to keep things quite and let it stew. We had each others backs no matter what. Even if we just fought. At least, during our youths.

I was raised by both my parents who truly loved each other.They were married for 65 years & were best friends for 10 years before that; so, they shared their lives for 75 years. I was 58 when Mom passed & I can’t remember them ever fighting. Yes, they disagreed frequently; but no real fighting!!! They promised to never go to bed mad & Dad used to joke that he wasn’t getting much sleep but Mom was sleeping soundly. Dad was miserable by himself & said he was looking forward to joining her.

Believe me when I say that my soulmate had really big shoes to fill; but we shared a marriage a lot like my parents except we didn’t have 75 years together before he passed. Now, much like my Dad, I’m looking forward to joining him although I’m in no real hurry to get there!!! I spent many years looking for love; so, I really appreciated him once I found him.We both had survived a previously abusive marriage & we appreciated the Peace & Love that we shared!!!

I was closer to my Mom than my Dad but I miss BOTH of them!!!