Dalila -- I wasn't usually hit but I was often told to "wipe that expression off my face."

As if I knew what the offensive expression was. What am I -- Jim Carrey practicing my next mug for the camera?

I'm not saying that children can't make unpleasant faces are parents and other grown-ups. But I suspect that whatever was showing on my face was more blank than anything else. Even today, in middle age, I am told that I am intimidating, distant, forbidding, and I'm pretty sure it's because I had so much practice hiding my feelings when I was a kid.

I'm glad you brought this up. It helps me to reflect on and make sense on something I've never before thought about from this perspective.