If your father had been born into the family of your mother, and your mother into the family of your father, how might your life have

This is such an odd question. I seriously sat and thought about it for 15 minutes yesterday. 

My parents are/ were highly dysfunctional people. However, I feel like my mother's issues were more biological. I think she probably has/had bipolar disorder and/or borderline personality disorder. She came from a "normal" healthy family, as far as I can tell. My father's father was abusive and his sister tried to kill him repeatedly as a child. No joke. That will mess anyone up. 

In other words, my mother's environment may not have really shaped her, but I think my father's did. Ergo, if the homes were swapped, my mother would have been a total basket case, not just unstable, and my father might have been relatively normal. Chances are, my mother would have bailed immediately after my birth and my father would have raised us in a stable loving household. I'd be a totally different person. Totally. I spent my younger years trying to overcome years of abuse, neglect, and poverty. I had a baby at 15 because my mother invited a known child predator to live with us. Had I grown up with at least one healthy parent, I wouldn't have had my son. I would have entered college right after high school. I probably would have started a great career early in life and created a solid relationship with a stable man. And, my interest in sites like this really stems from the life I experienced. I've kept the Mug going because sites like it played a pivotal role in keeping me going through periods of social isolation. It was important for me to keep that going, so others would have the same outlet. There probably wouldn't be an answerMug. If there was, I don't know that it would be the same place. I was made to feel small and worthless during my early years. That's precisely why I set the policies I did here- because I don't ever want anyone to feel that way. I know it doesn't always work out how I hope and I know not everyone agrees with the way things are enforced, but really, that's what it is. When people are jerks or nasty to each other, it genuinely saddens me. So much of my life was spent being on the receiving end of that. I feel personal responsibility for preventing it.

As much as I like the idea of having to grow up without the struggles I did; the idea of having a "normal" upbringing that would have put me on the path to success and balance from an early age, I don't think I would want that now. My "scars" have made me a more compassionate and caring person. If I was without that component, I don't think I'd like me very much. 

I would still be getting my a** beaten.

The same.  

They got on quite well, my mom and dad's families.