Well, Open Eyes, I agree with a lot of what you're saying. Family life is a tough problem for a lot of us. And always has been. I don't believe there's any nationality or ethnic group that has the absolute answer. Yet. I do have hopes for the future, though. As I do for other aspects of psychology and mutual understanding.

My poor parents, whom I love, were very intelligent, educated, hardworking people. They believed, sincerely, in their hearts, that they were good parents and doing the right thing by their children. They would have been horrified and terribly hurt if someone in authority had told them it wasn't so. That what they were doing to their children would cause those children lifelong pain.

We do not ask to be born. And to get married and have a family is almost as much a no-brainer as being born. I pretty much know what my parents' problems were, each individually, and their situation was tragic, as is that of all too many people. They would have done better not to have any children, but there was no way for them to know that.

They were good people who tried their best. Sincerely. And I still love them, respect them, and admire them, particularly after having obtained a grasp of how difficult and sad life really is. One must be ready at all times to forgive almost anything. I think. And I certainly forgive my parents. Given their constraints I myself couldn't ever have done better than they did. And they did so much. They really did.

Life is hard. If you can't deal with that you can't deal with anything. This is not a Hollywood movie. It's so far from a Hollywood movie that all too many of us are totally disoriented when we arrive at adulthood after a childhood and adolescence of television, computer games and movies. It's a shame that our early years now teach us so little, and that was true even in my time, all those many years ago. Take care!