how sociable were (are) your mother and father, what affect

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Interesting topic.

My father was a nice but socially inept man who on hindsight had all the AS traits.
He never yelled at me or hit me but on the other hand we never had a "heart to heart" talk about anything.

My mother was an intelligent NT and great to talk to but I cannot remember her hugging or cuddling me. It was like being raised by a maiden aunt.

Add to this that I was an only child born when my parents were 40 and it makes for a lonely childhood. No wonder I had my own shrink by the age of 7.

My mother was social to a fault, meaning she never understood boundaries and didn't know where to draw the "TMI" line. She also ended up having affairs during three of her four marriages, and the only reason I'm not sure about the fourth is that *I* finally drew the line (I was an adult by then) and said DON'T TELL ME ANOTHER WORD. Attention-seeking to a literal fault.

My father almost certainly was Aspie but also had anger issues. If there were a poster with the initials "AS" painted across the top, there would be a picture of my father underneath.

Both my parents are fearful and paranoid. They are also incapable of expressing their needs, and very passive in public. Arguments would lead to days of no conversation whatsoever. Needless to say, it was (and is, as I still live with them at 29) a very strange, inhospitable environment.

I'm virtually certain my mother has AS. She was violent and volatile, emotionally distant (I'm not sure how many of you took intro psych classes, but for those of you who did, if you remember the experiments with the baby monkeys and a wire cage and carpet compared to an actual mother monkey, my mother was the wire cage. She was physically present, but not really there), a chronic, compulsive liar, and completely lacking in understanding of other people's feelings. Basically all the negative AS stereotypes writ large.