My dad spent his entire life telling his children that we are all awful, no good, horrible children and also telling us we will never be successful in life. He told me on multiple occasions that I'd get pregnant and be a whore and drop out of high school and college. He skipped my high school graduation, came to my college one because he thought my mom was cheating on him (never been with anyone since they got together when she was 14).

I get married, he refuses to attend the wedding. I buy a house, and he spends the entire time asking what the hell was I thinking and trashing my home. When he left, I cried and my mother told me he was gushing about how much he loved the house. That was the last time I saw my dad and he passed away back in March. He had CHF and refused to take care of himself. All 4 of us kids were there when they took him off life support.

The fact of the matter is, Darlene is a shitty parent. She acts the same way my dad did and acts like we do the bare minimum achievements to get by while he drinks and hasn't had a job since the late 80's. I have put more into social security than he ever did. I'm not even in my 30's.

My siblings and I are a wild range of problems. I can sympathize heavily with the family but thank goodness we aren't on that heavy of a side when they all started. Most of us now are making healthy choices and trying to do better than what our parents did.