If your parents are physically, verbally, emotionally, or otherwise abusive towards you, please seek professional help. Your high school, university, or community centre should have counselling services which can help you.
Since I have written very openly about my upbringing by physically and emotionally abusive parents, I’ve received many comments both in public and in private. For those who have written to thank me, you’re welcome. For those who have written to disagree with me, I would like to address a few of the most common comments.
The most important thing I want to ask you is whether your opinion would be any different if, instead of writing about physical and emotional child abuse, I had written about physical and emotional spousal abuse, or sexual child abuse. Would you tell a battered wife to be more understanding of where her husband is coming from? Would the fact that her husband had been brought up in a more traditional culture have any bearing on your advice to her? Similarly, would you ever tell a sexually abused child to be more sympathetic to his parents, or that they were only acting in his best interests… » [Expand post] [Permalink]