I could list a thousand things that either my Mom or my Dad said to me when I was young that hurt me, or that I still think about today. And, throughout my teenage years, and even a bit past that, I blamed all of my faults on those words that my parents said to me. However, as a parent myself, I harken back to one thing my Dad said often when I was young: "that's SI," meaning self-inflicted. It is incredibly difficult to be a parent, knowing that you have almost total responsibility for the way a person grows up and who that person will be. But, parents are PEOPLE, too. Don't lose sight of the fact that even though these people are your parents, that they have hardships that they endure and that if in a bad moment they say something to you that doesn't follow the Sesame Street and PBS guidelines that parents today are expected to follow, cut them some slack. I'm not saying that there aren't bad parents out there, but MOST try very hard and are very aware of their responsibility. However they (we) are human, and should be forgiven for those moments when they (we) lose their cool or are otherwise distracted. This is not meant to downplay how you feel, just to offer some balance and to put a word in for us parents who know that they aren't perfect, that their parent's weren't perfect, and that our kids aren't going to be perfect, either.