Exactly, Micealc! I COULD NEVER GET IT RIGHT! No matter what I did, he said I screwed up. I have come to believe as an adult that it's because AF was unhappy, spoiling for a fight, looking for someone to blame. He snapped and yelled because he was unhappy and then blamed me for his anger.
"Trying to catch me out."
That's exactly how I began to feel, and I realized a few years ago that it had even affected my view of God, that I had long viewed God as Someone Who was going to play word games with me, not tell me what I needed to know, and then CATCH ME OUT when I showed up at the Pearly Gates with...A-HA!!! You should have KNOWN this is what I wanted!
In the last few years since I've cut contact with my family, my view of God has changed and for the first time in my life, I'm seeing Him as a loving father, not as someone dangling answers just out of my reach who will then blame me for not knowing what he never told me.
It's sad, it's scary, to realize what power our alcoholic or dysfunctional parents had over every area of our lives.