It's great that emotional abuse is actually being included here, and is becoming more recognized as a form of abuse...not to focus solely on emotional abuse, but coming from a family where the emotional abuse that was heaped on me, and still is, was completely negated and dismissed as ridiculous on my part, it's helpful to know that more people do accept it as a form of abuse.
As for the topic, I will say that it's normal for people who have been abused, to abuse their kids and others, purely because the abuse they suffered set up patterns in them which can later act out on an unconscious level unless they become aware of it...and then make the conscious choice to not abuse.
Until then they will be at the mercy of these patterns, and since most people were raised to think this is a normal way to behave in the family unit, as it was 'normalized' when they were kids, it takes a lot to break out of that. It takes a lot even to become aware that it isn't right or normal...so anyone who does break out of that pattern deserves the utmost respect.
I think the fact that you are so worried about abusing your kids only proves that you aren't willing to let what was done to you be inflicted on them. If you didn't care about them you wouldn't worry about it.
And hey, I have babysat before and had to put up with the child crying and carrying on for hours on end for no good reason, and came to the conclusion that as much as I don't condone it and it isn't acceptable, I can fully understand how a parent could easily lose it and try and strangle their kid, a la Homer Simpson, especially after a year or more of hardly any sleep and constantly being annoyed by screaming and crying and tantrums. We're human after all and everyone has a breaking point!
