A bully comes in so many forms

There has been a great deal of attention recently to the effects of bullying and I agree, it is a horrible, terrible situation but I was struck last night while watching Anderson Cooper's Special Report on Bullying in which Dr. Phil stated that bullying is so much more hurtful now because home is not even a safe place anymore, due to our ever-growing dependence on electronic communication.  You see, my bully was my mother.  Truth be told, she could and did hurt me worse than anyone else.  Ironically some of the things she did to me resulted in additional bullying at school but the peer bullying was such a minor part of my life. School for me was still a respite.