Well, I appreciate that my parents did not allow me to be a wild, out-of-control brat like "parents" have for the past couple of decades . . . but it's only been during the past 20 years or so that I realized just how bad some of their actions were as people and parents and how disconnected they were in so many ways . . . so I took the little good and a lot of the bad into consideration in raising my child, trying to be an extra-good parent. What I have learned, what I've achieved, how I parented, my own morals and ethics and my want to make the world better is because of MY efforts and determination - they had nothing to do with any of it. But you know what's really puzzling is that my child, now one of those twenty-somethings, who had SO much potential from a strong foundation, has become a completely self-absorbed, detached, and discompassionate young woman who wanted to be treated like an adult - but not have to be part of the sometimes unpleasant responsibilities that go along with being an adult, and she's thrown away the only family she had.

Go figure.