My mother and father were in an on-again-off-again relationship for a year or so. They would act nice and everything would go fine, then slowly they would descend into madness. My father was an abusive fuck, my mother was co-dependent. So even if she left for awhile when he threw furniture, got into rages, or took the battery out of her car she always went back eventually.
Hell, it got so bad she tried to join the military to escape him. She got in, realized she couldn't do it, and then (I forget exactly how) got herself declared mentally unfit. Went right back to him.
She discovered she was pregnant, during one of the times they had broken up, and didn't want to have an abortion. But her mother was crazy and wouldn't let her come back home and my mother didn't make enough money on her own. So, having that first kid meant going back to my father for good this time. She went back.
They went on to have ten kids together. T e n. It sealed our fate as a poverty stricken family with high tensions. My parents fought on a three/four day cycle. My father was still abusive even to us, though other than spanking us until our asses were red his weapon of choice was words. But, in terms of emotional abuse, my mother was more covert snd therefore did more damage.
They hated each other. But neither wanted to be alone. My mother would threaten to leave, my father would beg her to stay. I always hoped she would finally divorce him and get us out of that hell. But, it wasn't until I was an adult that she did it.
In the meantime, the house was a war zone. If either was pissed everyone knew to look busy if you had to be inside, stay quiet, and escape to the outside/your room as quickly as possible. We all got used to getting in trouble, not because we did something worthy of being screamed and yelled at but because they had anger they needed to work out. We all got used to my mother doing crazy shit, yelling and screaming, to get my father's attention during an argument. Or when my father would throw chairs, bellow, go deadly silent...
They never should have had kids together. I honestly wish they hadn't. I would rather have not existed than have to deal with the mental scars they left me and my siblings.