They trusted me to handle the truth. I don't remember being told any lies about sex or dating or difficult topics like losing a family pet. They did lie about Santa Claus though. I had a hard time there.

They recognized the kind of person I was instead of just handling me as a child only. This sounds weird, but what I mean is, they recognized that I was a human being with strong personality traits from the get-go, and not just talked down to, and didn't just forbid things across the board. They recognized I had an issue with authority, so instead of crushing me with an authoritative approach, they parented around it. There were discussions and talks and everybody was treated like an adult, as long as there was respect from my side. (I was a little jackass for a few years, for sure, but they were total troopers during my shitty phase). There were never any explicit rules other than, 'don't do anything illegal' and 'call if you aren't going to come home'. As a consequence, I was grounded only twice.

They also stayed very consistent with their rules. I begged and begged for a horse for 6 years non-stop, and one summer, there he was. My very own horse. But there was a lot of responsibility expected from me, and if I didn't keep up with that, I had to deal with some serious consequences.

One thing I wish they hadn't done was resort to spanking. I got hit with foreign objects (belt, fly-swatter, wooden spoon) a handful of times, and I can still remember the individual incidences. For me, it went past intimidation and into pain, which is something I don't plan on incorporating into my game book once I become a parent. Who knows though, perhaps I was more of a jackass than I remember being.