My parents played the bad father, good mother strategy on me and I gotta say, that works too well. Because when the good mom takes the dad's side, you know you have no chance in any argument, no matter how correct you can be. I only wished my parents were more educated so they could use better terms and phrases to lash out their anger.
My dad was traditional in that he would not physically hurt any female and would not raise his voice in a public locations like restaurants. So being the middle child, I took the hit every time my dad gets angry with my mom, my sister or my younger bother. Looking back, I can see from his point of view that he needed to let some steam out and I was the best option. He obviously wouldn't hit his wife, he couldn't strike at his daughter and my brother was too young to take any punishment so I can see why I was the only victim in those situations. I would think as my brother got older that maybe I'll share the burden but I guess after years of only gunning for me, he got used to it so my brother just ended up getting verbal abuse just like how my sister always gets it. But me, I got a good deal, I not only get verbal abuse and physical punishment every time he's mad at me but also when he's angry at someone else. Nice.
I remember an incident when I was in middle school, not sure of the exact age, where my mom took my dad's side in some argument and I was soo pissed that after it was over, I went to my room and not knowing any better and wanting to forget, I banged my head on the wall until I passed out. (that was not a good thing to do as i'm pretty sure it jacked me up in some ways)
Now that we're all older, we have a mutual understanding and there are no more heated arguments between us. Just civilized talks. But I realized that my parents only did that because they care and they didn't know any better. They have their own vision of what they want their children to be and if we even go a little out of path, they want to try to correct that right away and when you're not fully educated, installing fear into a child seems to be the best method.
This all sounds like a bad thing but you know what, I still look up to my dad. Even after all the pain and punishments he gave me, I know now that he meant it in a good way. I'm just pissed that my brother didn't fully get any of that good 'ol parenting.
