As for whether children can rise above the effects of bad parenting, I think that the state of utter perfection I have somehow managed to attain, is proof positive that they can.

So, I'll confess now that when I see you've posted a blog, I sit down with relish and prepare to be entertained. You never disappoint.

As a child, I never took kindly to being told what to do

You and I have many things in common (and many not in common😄), but this is one trait we share. I had a wonderful mother--truly a saint--but we clashed. I remember one ferocious (that is, filled with emotion, never violence) argument we had. My dear mother never expected us to share her heavy workload. She did, however, want us to learn responsibility. Consequently, she assigned washing the kitchen floor to two of us--split it down the middle and we each do half. I promptly sat down with a bucket to do my assignment.

"You have to kneel," my mother instructed.

Apparently, there is a right way to wash the kitchen floor. Getting it clean wasn't enough. Getting it clean with the proper behavior was necessary. Oh how I chafed at that. How I fought. She won, but it was Pyrrhic victory. The floor argument became the template for our relationship going forward: Give me a reasonable explanation for a command, or leave me alone :)