I was able to play with neighbourhood kids and also my brother and sister but I wouldn't say I had any friends. Just skated with the neighbourhood kids for example, or played with my brother and sister. I don't have complaints though, I had fun playing.

Home life was stressful at times. Father had a temper, mother had an explosive temper at times too. Mother would beat me if I got detention, dad would occasionally hit. Both would put me down at times. Dad would often say that I was naive. Mother kind of said I was weird or stupid. Dad would yell at Mum at times, and drive all over the road if he was mad, or just yell for hours. One time he punched holes in the walls, or beat the dog, stuff like that. We would also get the belt if we were naughty or didn't follow instructions. Mother one time left home and just went for a long long walk. Dad found her in a park somewhere I think and she agreed to come home. They were both pretty good normally, but you never knew when things would go bad sometimes. One time Mother made me serve food for visitors and because I was socially anxious she got angry and swore at me and shouted that she would cut my penis off if I didn't smile and socialise. I eventually just didn't serve food because I didn't like being treated that way.

But yeah, I would say childhood was unpredictable for us mostly. Even when we had visitors or were visiting others, Dad was liable to just have a mood swing and embarrass me with his yelling or some mean comment.