What is your earliest memory of PD behavior?

[clarasophia]

I was three and my room was a mess. My mother locked me up in it and just said to clean it up. I was completely overwhelmed with where to start or how to do it. I finally found my Barbie case and figured out I could put my Barbie stuff away. At some point she came back in and of course I had made very little progress. She grabbed the one thing I had done, the Barbie case, and started shaking it around the room so that everything fell out, screaming Clean this up! Clean this up!

[UsedUp]

My earliest memory was when I was about 2 years old. I don't remember much else until I got older.

But at about 2 years old, i wanted to help my mom mop the kitchen floor. She NEVER ever taught me anything about keeping house or cooking, (i was banned from the kitchen as a teenager, when I tried to help in the kitchen before she got home from work .

Anyway, at about 2 years old, everybody was gone somewhere.  Just me and my.mom .she was mopping the kitchen floor and I  wanted to help.  2 years old.

She got mad about something and got the broom and started chasing me around the kitchen swinging it at me. I literally thought she was going to kill me. I  ran around the kirchen until she caught me. I just hunkered down in the corner.

Looked over my shoulder, finally, and there she was , with that broom. Never saying a word. Looked totally psycho.

But someone came in during  this, and she stopped and acted like nothing happened.  And I was too young to tell anyone.

[StayWithMe]

Needless to say she was disappointed at the lack of improvement even though I continued to do exceptionally well. "Room for improvement" became one of the phrases that I learned to hate.

It's an all purpose stick to beat someone with.

[Hazy111]

Clarasophia and UsedUp stories perfectly describe the temporary insanity experienced by the Borderline mother (Borderline meaning crossing from sanity to insanity)  so well described by Christine Lawson in her brilliant book "Understanding the Borderline Mother"

A two year old ! is threatened for trying to help their mother and a three year old ! is threatened for not helping her.

[Aeon]

I was about 4 and my brother threw my only friend, a large blue stuffed dog, under the house.
He lifted up an entryway inside the house and thew the dog under.
I don't remember the throwing very well but I remember asking him to get the dog (he said no, of course)
and then went to my Mom and she told me no.
I was pretty broken up at the time and didn't understand why a little dust was better to avoid than your heartbroken and crying child.
I understand now, that my feelings were never a concern for her, at four or fourty.