This resonated soul-deep with me and made me even more glad that I consciously made the decision to NOT be the parent witch which I was raised. The only limit I ever imposed on my daughter's future was when she was four and wanted to be the monster from The Relic. Other than that single thing, I never told her she couldn't do or be anything she desired.
(Admittedly, she's ended up at 18 a willful, stubborn heathen who isn't afraid of anything, but I wouldn't have her any other way. She also ended up kind to old folks and animals, smart, and courteous.)
For twelve years, after I divorced her Father, I was a single Mom and the solitary phrase that reverberated in my head was the shriek I'd heard throughout my childhood, "You're worthless. You ruined my life and I wish I'd never had you." Those words, even now that I'm over forty, still turn my insides raw and I swore I would never, ever hurt my daughter like that. I am not a perfect parent, I screw up now and again, but I have given it my damnedest. All I can hope is that deciding I wouldn't be my Mother was enough to have brought her through her childhood with as much joy as possible.
**hugs** Having made the same vow -- much support from the mother of a similarly willful, bullheaded, smart, snarky, loving, complex young woman (who just turned 20 this week, holy SHIT!)
And, OMG. Book "Relic" or movie "Relic"?? I have to know!!
Sabrina (my partners' four-and-a-half-year-old daughter, in my icon) recently went through a phase of wanting to be Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors."
(Admittedly, she's ended up at 18 a willful, stubborn heathen who isn't afraid of anything, but I wouldn't have her any other way. She also ended up kind to old folks and animals, smart, and courteous.)
For twelve years, after I divorced her Father, I was a single Mom and the solitary phrase that reverberated in my head was the shriek I'd heard throughout my childhood, "You're worthless. You ruined my life and I wish I'd never had you." Those words, even now that I'm over forty, still turn my insides raw and I swore I would never, ever hurt my daughter like that. I am not a perfect parent, I screw up now and again, but I have given it my damnedest. All I can hope is that deciding I wouldn't be my Mother was enough to have brought her through her childhood with as much joy as possible.
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And, OMG. Book "Relic" or movie "Relic"?? I have to know!!
Sabrina (my partners' four-and-a-half-year-old daughter, in my icon) recently went through a phase of wanting to be Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors."
We're raising 'em right ;)
<3!
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