Thanks for sharing your story (and you 2 Crumpet), and other's posts. I'm shaking my head in disbelief at people. My 3 kids rock my world and I love them more than anything, all I care about in my lifetime is raising 3 kids who grow up to like themself and to be happy.
My parents did not abuse me physically, although my father said some pretty mean things to me and my siblings because he had low self-esteem and wanted to make sure to pass it onto the next generation. My mother was just plain nuts and instead of taking care of her children or spending any time cleaning the house (our house was filthy when I was growing up), she spent all of her time spying on the neighborhood and made me help her spy on the neighbors when I was a little girl. It was a strange existence.
My way of getting back at my parents is to tell my kids every day that I love them and that they are wonderful. And I never ever say mean things to my kids that I would regret later.