Thanks for this! My alcoholic mother used to complain that having my brother and sister and me had been a bad decision. We had a poodle as a pet, and she used to say that if she had it over again she would have three poodles instead. I've long realized looking back on it that this was a demeaning thing to say to me, but this reading made me think more deeply about how it also made me feel responsible for her unhappiness. I think that she sometimes used parenthood as an excuse for why she was unhappy, instead of looking at her drinking. And I always did feel helpless and responsible as a kid when she was sad. I hope that going forward I can let go of some of the guilt and responsibility I feel when people I love make choices that make them unhappy.