Even though my mom herself was anxious, I think she didn't know how to deal with it in her kid, and my dad just had no conception of what this was about, and sort of didn't even want to acknowledge it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I felt highly anxious in a way that I didn't think other children were.
So, I remember when I was a kid, I was waiting for my mom to come home when she was working late, and, you know, I was like, 'Oh my God, what happened to her? Is she OK? Did something happen to her getting in the car?' I was a little kid. But those are actually early onsets of anxiety.
I work with kids, and I see certain things, so I realize now why my mother was so horrified and overprotective of everything that I watched.
I found out when I was 18 that Dad had left my mother and the family before he realised he was ill and then died. When I asked Mum about it, she just sort of shrugged it off and said she'd thought I knew about it all along. Of course I hadn't, though I'm sure she must have been desperately unhappy at the time.
It's a universal truth that no parent wishes to acknowledge that the fear and phobias we are in thrall to in adulthood almost invariably connect back to childhood experiences.
My mom always knew I would be able to take care of myself, but my dad was afraid.
I learned denial from my mother. I just never confronted things and if anybody did, I just would go crazy.
It's a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children.
Mum and Dad were very much friends and up for life. There was no anxiety for anything when I was growing up; they just taught me to be me.
My mom told me to do whatever I wanted to do and don't get too anxious about it.