Alcoholic and abusive father, enabling and abusive mother. Lived adjacent to the 'ghetto' neighborhoods in a city with a high violent crime rate. Things got a l

Alcoholic and abusive father, enabling and abusive mother. Lived adjacent to the 'ghetto' neighborhoods in a city with a high violent crime rate. Things got a little better financially in my mid teens, but the damage had been done on a mental level. I didn't go to college until I was 26, mostly because it never seemed like an option. Now that I've been through it and have a job and career and have been able to work through the mental damage from my childhood, I feel a huge amount of empathy for kids who are coming from similar situations. Anyway, didn't mean to be judgmental, so apologies for that. I just feel strongly about the topic.