Has your background made you a better person or a bitter person?

I also had a less-than-ideal childhood. And I learned early on that you can either let it ruin you, or you can learn from your circumstances, and use your trials as stepping stones to climb higher in life. It is really easy to blame people or your circumstances, to let yourself become bitter and unhappy and angry. But in the long run, it only hurts you. It's much better to see it as an opportunity to grow and become stronger. And I think that those of us who have had a number of struggles and difficulties can really appreciate the beauty in life more than those who haven't.

The hardships in life are what makes us stronger....that's what life is about isn't it? Learning from your mistakes and so on. We all have heartache and it either makes us stronger or makes us weaker. I don't think that anyone really has a perfect childhood, no parent is perfect and if you did have a flawless childhood then you're one of the lucky ones and probably didn't learn much about life along the way either though. To answer your question though, my childhood left me with the ability to deal with personal pain and how to get through the hard times and just keep going. I'm not a perfect parent either and my kids know this and I just hope that I'm able to give them something meaningful.

Excellent topic WM! I had a really crap childhood/teenhood/partly adulthood! I also learnt a lot of lessons the very very hard way and in a really weird way i'm grateful that i've experienced what I have, because I now know what it's like to hit rock bottom and drag yourself up again. I think it has helped to make me more tolerant and less judgemental and on the whole I think i've become a better person. lol

i believe you ,webman.i never regret the things in the past especially what my family taught me. i was a blacksheep in the family but that did not stop me from being a better person. inspite of my rebelious personality, i still manage to rise above it.the kids of today are far different from who we were because of the advent of infotech there was a deluge of informations they can experience .the needs and wants is becoming a lot and somehow this aggravates the lack of love within themselves. what really is lacking nowadays is love. they have misconstrued the essence of love.

I can proudly say my childhood make a lot of contribution to what I'am now a better person. I was raised in a simple family who is engaged in a business of livestock which molds be to be responsible,industrious and a practical individual. I've seen how my father and mother work really hard to maintain the good reputation of our business and to compete fairly with other rival and I can say even now that I was matured enough all the things I learn and observe with my parents really help me to be a responsible and reliable individual and I was proud of that.

My childhood has been really many things. Many of the were also very bad (all about family problems). the result? Yes, they made me very strong, but I think I was pretty strong at the beginnig, otherwise they might have made me also very weak, and extremely fulnerable or even worst. Ok I'm "strong" , but only as far as I haven't to deal with those family matter anymore. If it happens I'm really a disaster, and if I'm strong, I am so in the worst of the way. So, in the end, I would be much better If I hadn't been through them!!!

Good question. I didn't have a "crappy" childhood, but it wasn't great either. My parents are decent people. My siblings are decent people. I think my biggest complaints would be, the lack of positive reinforcement, the abundancs of criticism and the fact that I was scared of my dad. Not because he was physically abusive to us, but because he was very intimidating to me. Am I bitter because of it? No. I was an angry individual for a long time, but I worked through it. It think my Dad was (and still is to some degree) an angry person as well. So, I think I learned that way of being from him. He wasn't very nice to my mom and my thinking was, I'll be damned if I allow myself to be treated like that. So, I ended up acting more like my dad, so that I wouldnt be treated like my mom. It took me a while to realize what I had been doing. Since I realized it. I've done my best to correct it.