In contrast, my mother with whom I had a bad relationship said things to me like.
1) "Your breasts will never be as big as mine."
2) "A man won't buy a cow if he can get the milk for free."
Most disturbing of all: When she was in a huge fight with my father because he wanted to divorce and get custody of my baby sister (I was around 18 and my sister was 8. My father raised my sister virtually as a single parent because my Mom went completely out to lunch shortly after my sister was born. I don't recall that she ever did any housework, cooking or held a job more than sporadically from that point forward. She was a manic shopaholic and inclined towards rage incidents.). In front of me, she told my father that if he didn't give her custody/child support/alimony she would accuse him of sexually abusing my sister in court. Imagine my reaction to this woman when in response to my early tendencies towards feminism she would say things like "I believe that it's alright for a woman to be creatively dependent on a man.". as she made her way past the counter piled with dirty dishes, ignoring my baby sister whose hair hasn't been brushed in two days, on her way to the mall to indulge her vice by forging my father's signature on a check.
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" - Mary Oliver
