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I Love My Father, But I Didn’t Always Like the Way He Treated My Mother
For years, I felt caught between loving my father and wanting to protect my mother. Growing up, I learned I didn’t have to choose.
When I was little, I used to run to the door whenever my father came home from work. I remember how happy I was to see him and how much I looked forward to those moments. Like most little girls, I thought my father was one of the strongest people in the world. I loved spending time with him, and I never questioned how much he loved us.
My father was a generous man, especially when it came to his children. If there was something we needed or wanted and he could afford it, he would provide it. I grew up feeling that he would always do his best to make sure we had what we needed. I didn’t think much about his generosity at the time because it was simply what I was used to.
Years later, when I started thinking about the kind of man I wanted to marry, I realized that generosity was one of the qualities I valued most. I hadn’t consciously decided that it mattered so much to me. It was something I had learned from growing up with my father.
But not everything I learned from him came from the things I admired.
