It took a long time for me. I knew they did mean things but when you are raised like that it seems normal. The real breaking point is when I realized my mother was abusing my autistic son the same way she had me. They both died last year and I didn’t go to either funeral. My dad would often get in my face and scream at me while my mother would destroy anything I loved. If she gave me a present in a few years it would be gone. She would have and would be “saving it” for me. I have nothing from my childhood. I don’t have my class ring ‘she bought’ because I would just lose it was always the excuse. My dad was little different. I had a heart attack and got behind on my house payments. My dad ‘helped’ me out buy taking over the loan. When I signed both him and the POS bank guy told me it was just them adding him to the loan but it was them cutting me out. I could go on and on but the first sentence is your answer. I would like to add they were physically abusive up until I was fourteen. At that point I was absurdly strong for my age due to being my dads ‘slow gaited mule’ in his scrap business. He never passed up a chance to tell me I wasn’t good enough. I just wish I would have realized how badly they feared me after I picked something up that few could and put it in the back of a truck. I did this because he was having a full meltdown and I was scared of him.

More from the sales types but saying ‘value added’ is the same as saying greedy mark up.