My parents had this strange idea that your intelligence is something that you're born with and can't be taught. Unfortunately, they decided that my sister was "naturally intelligent" since she was very bright from the start, and that I was an idiot who had no hope in life to improve.

They started taking away all of my choices, making sure that they or my sibling would speak for me as much as possible. Anytime I misspoke they'd all chime in apologizing because "she's just an idiot." This started leading to my parents making my sister choose things for me, such as the food I could eat at a restaurant, or the candy i could buy at a store. Then, she was allowed to beat me whenever she felt like I deserved it.

I was already a fairly timid kid, but I eventually learned to stop talking and make myself as invisible as possible. Through my 20s, when people would hear me speak, they'd let me know they were surprised that I even spoke English (note: I live in the US and English is my first language).

So yeah, I will never do whatever you want to call what my parents did to me to any future children or anyone else for that matter.