How I wish my childhood could have been

I think most parents make a mess of their children.  

I was a twin and very early, I saw that I was different.    I saw how badly everyone else functioned so I worked out my own way of doing things.

My parents were useless.- mum, (I now suspect ASD) wasn't interested - from the age of 6 I had to look after myself.       My dad had no patience and resorted to violence as his first option - never any explanation, just violence - so I totally avoided him.   

At 5, my infant teacher spotted my super-abilities and wanted me to go to a special school for the gifted but parents had no money and my brother's health meant we had to move down South for warmer weather - I got stuck in the worst-performing local school when we moved.

I became very independent - I didn't need their craziness.       I developed the skills to do things like Neo from 'The Matrix' - an eidetic memory - I would devour books from the library (this was late 60s / early 70s so the so the Apollo program and technology was big news) so if I've seen it, I've 100% learnt it.        

(For example, if you show me just 1 second of any 'How It's Made' program, I could tell you all about every detail of the thing being made!)

Most of my friends were quite well off and had all the good toys - but there's no way that I could ever have them so I learned to improvise - I could instantly gain skills and expertise to do expensive things for no money and get the same results - like building radio controlled planes from buying some sticks of balsa and creating my own plans.

From the age of around 12, I developed a big, extrovert mask (I noticed introverts get bullied) and that got me through life.

I only started to connect with my dad when I was married with a kid on the way - we just started to communicate - and then he dropped dead.

My mums behaviour changed after that - she became even more disengaged and sat on the sofa expecting everyone else to entertain her until she dropped dead 15 years later.        I can't say I feel anything over that except "I'm glad that's over."

I can't say my parents ever really bothered with me - even when my brother broke my nose (twice), they didn't even bother taking me to hospital.

I don't have anything to compare against but my wife says I had an unbelievably deprived childhood.         I disagree - their non-caring meant I had total freedom - which suited me fine.

I've been watching "Going South" on Amazon Prime. It's a documentary TV series about two pairs of cyclists. One pair cycles from the northern tip of Alaska down to the southern end of the United States.

The other from the top of South America to the bottom of it.

They have the practical skills and know-how to keep fixing the bikes as they go along. 

There was also a docu-film I watched called Trabant goes to Africa. A group of Czech people crossed Africa north-south in two battered old Trabants and had to fix them about two dozen times. But remarkably even when they had to saw off a branch from a tree or dig up nearby soil to create an improvised ramp to unload a car, they managed it all.

I thought those might interest you. Also, you should consider doing a holiday like that yourself. If you took people along with you, they would really appreciate having someone who could fix things! It's a brilliant adventure by the looks of it but for those of us who aren't practically capable it would be quite frightening!

I've been watching "Going South" on Amazon Prime. It's a documentary TV series about two pairs of cyclists. One pair cycles from the northern tip of Alaska down to the southern end of the United States.

The other from the top of South America to the bottom of it.

They have the practical skills and know-how to keep fixing the bikes as they go along. 

There was also a docu-film I watched called Trabant goes to Africa. A group of Czech people crossed Africa north-south in two battered old Trabants and had to fix them about two dozen times. But remarkably even when they had to saw off a branch from a tree or dig up nearby soil to create an improvised ramp to unload a car, they managed it all.

I thought those might interest you. Also, you should consider doing a holiday like that yourself. If you took people along with you, they would really appreciate having someone who could fix things! It's a brilliant adventure by the looks of it but for those of us who aren't practically capable it would be quite frightening!