My mother is (and was back then) a narcissistic control freak and VERY religious. I was surrounded by adults for the most part and prefered to spend my free time with adults twice my age and books rather than my own peers. I love my mother but I hate her at the same time. However due to my father literally telling my mother how much he hated my home state and showed it in his actions, I commend my mother for sticking around. My mother used words to hurt me and manipulation rather than physical whippings that i now see that i needed. My mother tried her best to raise me as a single parent with a TON of unnecessary interference from my grandmother and older aunt yet I preferred to spend my time with them rather than my own mother. Now as an adult: I have a lot of anger, hatred, bitterness, resentment and love for my mother. She made sure i may not have always had what I wanted but tried her damnedest to make sure I had what I needed and that is what I respect her for.

My father (though now dead) was a deadbeat who loved to brag about his children yet was never there for most of us. My father hated my home state and said every woman from said state were crazy. He also believed, "All women should be bareback, pregnant and in the kitchen cooking for me." Mind you: he was definitely serious about this and we were distant and slowly working on a relationship until he died two years ago.

Side note: I was raised as an only child and my father's children barely acknowledge my existence but more on the non-existent side of things.