I never hated NMom when I was little, but three incidents stand out in my mind that made me completely disconnect and be terrified of her. That's all I remember of my childhood: fear.

1) I was playing outside on my bike, alone (this was 1980, I was 4) and my tire caught on a large rock and there me to the ground. My knee landed on another sharp rock and cut deeply, bleeding all down my leg. I cried for a good 15 minutes before NMom came outside, irritatedly there a bandaid at me, called me a cry baby, and left. I had a scar on my knee from that incident until I was 15.

2) She would threaten me and GCSis with our lives if we tried to get up after she'd put us to bed. She'd growl, "If you even THINK about getting up to pee you will be sorry, and I guarantee you'll find out why. Just try it." I was so scared of her one night when I had to pee very badly after that threat, that I ended up peeing all over the bedroom floor instead.

3) She got invited out to dinner with some work friends, but no one was available to babysit me. So she was forced to take me along to the Mexican restaurant. I was 7 and had never been to a Mexican restaurant before, so the menu baffled me. Words like "enchilada" and "burrito"... I had no idea what to do and when I asked her for help she'd yell at me to shut up. When the waitress came by I ordered the only thing I could recognize: shrimp linguine. When NMom heard that, she shrieked, "OMG YOU ARE SO STUPID!!!! Who orders the MOST EXPENSIVE THING ON THE MENU at a Mexican restaurant!?! You are going to be SO SORRY you did this when we get home." I remember crying my eyes out in shame at the table, and all NMom's work friends looking both uncomfortable and sympathetic. One even glared at Nmom, but she was fine after humiliating me in public and didn't notice. She never understood why they never invited her out again.