god I hated her hypocrisy

At the age of 7, I decided to be Wednesday Addams for Halloween; my father took me to get a costume made. We were both pretty excited; and as soon as we got home, we went straight up to my mom and shared our excitement. She turned to my dad and started to yell about how all the details of my stupid costume were not ironed out, and how we had no concrete plans of trick or treat. Then it evolved to other stupid things, and I watched, wide eyed in shock, as the fight degraded to a name calling shouting match.

By the time I was 10, I had been force fed spoonfuls of dried chilies, I had spent a few afternoons locked in a closet and I was slowly learning to put on my thickest trousers whenever my mother began to pull out the brown cowboy belt that hung from my father’s closet. As a church elder however, she always reminded the young mothers that there was never a need spank a child.