It's made me put a high standard on marriage. It's made me want to be the best parent I possibly can for my future children. I feel like background story is warranted here, so I will give mine.

My parents were married while my mother was 9 months pregnant and they were both 19. Needless to say, thorough thought was not a factor.

As you'd probably guess, their marriage ended in divorce. My mother (to get this out of the way, she was sexually abused by her step father and sold to her parents friends as a sex toy in the south) was never able to help me with normal girl problems while I was growing up. I remember when I got my period for the first time, she couldn't bring herself to come close enough to my vagina to show me how a tampon worked. I put two and two together much later in life, but I spent a decent amount of my childhood with a tampon laid across my vagina instead of inside of it because I had no idea what to do.

My mother (again, I have no hard feelings for her - she went through a lot of shit with no one to help her) started dating a guy while she was still married to my father. He found out, and their divorce started.

I was not allowed to see my father during the divorce. My mother had apparently lied to police, saying that he was abusive (he was never anywhere close). It was found that my mother's mother (who was very much a part of her being sold) was giving her advice on how to leave my father.

I remember being called to the stand because my mother's mother convinced her to try and paint my father as abusive. I remember sneaking to see my father while I pretended to be with my grandmother. We met at a convenience store, and I remember my Dad hugging me as hard as he could.

After a while, the police realized that my mother was full of shit (months later), and my father was awarded half custody.

There was a lot more mess after, and I ended up living with my father throughout high school. I realize that this was a very long, more than asked for story, but my point is:

I will do whatever it takes to make sure that my own children never have to experience anything close to what I went through. I'm almost 30, and am just now thinking of marriage with my boyfriend of 4 years. I will do whatever to takes to make sure my children have a normal life.

tl;dr: I won't let my children go through what I went through.