My upbringing was, shall we say, interesting... my parents both have a very high regard for knowledge and education, and I grew up learning a lot from them, learning things I never learned in the crapass school system that my sis and I attended. On the other hand, there was a lot of tension-- my dad was away a lot when I was growing up and he and I are very close, whereas my mom and my sis are very close. I missed him a lot and even had nightmares about him leaving. My mom really resented him going off all the time while she had to do the dirty work (i.e., discipline us and basically be two parents at the same time). I was always really jealous and somewhat sadistic towards my sis because it seemed that Mom liked her way better than she liked me. Maybe she did, I don't know. My parents were old-fashioned in that they made us do chores and disciplined us when we misbehaved, which I actually really appreciate; we grew up knowing how to do things for ourselves and having manners, as opposed to the brats I see these days. That being said, there was a fair amount of emotional emptiness there.