Harriet, Catherine, Anna, Courtney and Baby each come from very different family backgrounds. In which ways do their families shape the girls' personalities? Who is more apt to rebel against her family, and who strives to make them proud? By your estimation, who is the closest at achieving a happy medium between the two?
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I Think I May Have A Screw Loose
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I saw my podiatrist yesterday. One part of my foot is still hurting (it's
been almost two months since the surgery). He thinks it may be one of the
screws ...
1 comments:
Before reading this book I never really thought about rebellion against family as a reason for being who I am. Lorelei talks about this earlier, rebellion against mom.
I was taken away from my birth mother at the age of five because of a variety of reasons, but she was not a really great mom. She was a nice person and she loved me, just not enough to do the work it takes to be a mom. Until recently I didn't really realize how much anger I still carry toward her, for not putting in the effort to be a mother.
Being a great mom is really important to me, probably too much. I go way over board. It isn't so much that I want the kids to know that they are love, because I don't really think that loving your kids is enough. I am obsessed with doing everything I possibly can, nutrition, education, discipline, I obsess about it all. I always put their needs first and I even end up putting myself last on the list. I think that maybe, this comes from anger I feel at my birth mother for not making me a priority, like I am living my life in order to prove her wrong.
I think this theme of living life in such a way as to prove someone wrong is a big part of this entire book. When we are kids we don't really have a voice and sometimes as adults we tend to still have in us the need to tell our parents off, from that time in our childhood when we couldn't. So the choices we make are to show our parents how wrong they were. Probably not healthy, I will put it on my list to work on.
I think Harriet is a good example of this in the book, Harriet's mother always just lived by the seat of her pants. Doing whatever felt good at the time. Harriet thought the happiest time of her life was when her mother was married for a brief time and Harriet got to live in a normal household. I think this is one of the reasons that Harriet chooses to walk away whenever she feels any sort of desire for a man. Plus the whole episode with Jeff.
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