[AnnieK]

Originally Posted by Alf

Yeah, that's a different experience from me. I had the first twelve years of my life growing up in a family unit. And then at a big stage in my life (coming into my teens) that life I knew and grown up in and I was normalised with was changed forever.

I know myself that I was a totally different person. I chose life paths that I wouldn't have done if I'd have been in a family unit.

My dad worked during the week so I only really saw him on the odd weekend. And because my mother became a single parent, she went out to work which meant I would stay off school because there was nobody there to make me go. So while most kids my age where doing there exams, I was getting stoned in my bedroom.

I still don't agree that's necessarily because of divorce though....both my parents worked so I was a latch key kid from about the age of 7. I took myself to school and back.....no one checked I went but I did. My folks were together but had to work because they were trying to give us the best....but because they that took on a mortgage when interest rates are double what they are now.....we were skint. We owned a house but my dad worked 2 jobs and mum worked full time. That's what being a family is.....not mum staying home and baking apple pies and saying wait till your dad gets home. In my eyes anyway. Whether its one parent or both.....in my case we don't really have a pot to piss in but my kid know right from wrong, goes to school, I have a house and we do what we can afford to have a good life....its all I can do. Better than the life he would have had if I stayed with his.dad