Comments on: TWISTED SISTERS

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:29:32 +0000

Thanks, Amber! I’m glad that shows through. I was wondering what motivates a person like this. Certain things she said about money…well…I can sort of smell a poor gal from a mile away:)

I do feel sorry for her (but mostly for her daughter). The girl was so silently angry. One thing I left out that would be a great detail for a poem is that we were standing near a row of Halloween candy…hundreds of bags of colorful candy. The girl kept wandering down the aisle and staring at the candy, then the mother would scold her for just looking at it! What a mixed message. The girl was so pretty and verging on that pre-adolescent growth spurt. The mother kept talking about the girls’ stomach and thighs and how she was getting chunky. Chunky was the mother’s word. Yargh!

Who knows. She might turn out “normal,” whatever that is. Or she might turn into a perky cheerleader type herself. I sort of doubt it, though. I’ve never seen such an angry little girl.

Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments!! It’s always wonderful to see you:)

By: Amber

Amber — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:24:15 +0000

Mom,
I like how you resisted the temptation to turn this character into a monster or a sterotype. You show a very human side of a very real person who has been delt a tough hand and deals with it in a misguided fashion. I also like how you don’t take the easy way out with big drama – like the daughter never speaking to the mother or ending up with serious mental problems. Rather you take a much more subtle and nuanced approach, which makes it all the more realistic and powerful. Great stuff.

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:10:39 +0000

Thanks, Christine & Nathan. And everyone else. Have a great day.

By: nathan1313

nathan1313 — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:19:53 +0000

This is wonderful. You can really get inside this person’s head.

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:02:15 +0000

I think this is a great short story, just as it is! Wonderful, Julie. Poor woman, so superficial, passing along her objective view of her daughter, reducing her to a thing.

By: Julie

Julie — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:11:18 +0000

Hello, Everybody! I’m sorry I’m not responding personally to each of you (awesome comments you have). More running around…but in a good way…it’s a beautiful weekend here:)

Yes, I agree that most women aren’t this extreme. I was in shock.

It has made me think of all the Bride-zillas I know, though. And the mothers of Bride-zilla. The working class parents who go into debt to pay for the “perfect” Cinderella wedding for their daughters.

Then I turn the finger around and point it at myself. I tried really hard to be a mother who wasn’t like this at all. I tried really hard to build her sense of self worth, to give her the power of the strong woman that she is.

But then I think of all the times I whined because I “didn’t have anything to wear.” Or all the times I called myself fat when I was really just normal. I wasn’t saying it to my daughter, but I was saying it to myself. Not a good example for self esteem. If I could go back in time and change the way I looked at myself, I would. I guess I’m trying to change it now.

Thanks again for your awesome comments. The sunshine is calling me again. Have a beautiful weekend!

By: johemmant

johemmant — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:49:26 +0000

I’m English so I totally freak whenever I see this gross sexualisation of little girls (we don’t do it here……yet). And, as always when women are abused by accepted cultural practices, it’s other women doing the abusing. How can any woman put makeup on her little girl and parade her around like a teenager. It’s beyond sick. Great post…….and that ass spray………god forgive the mother, but the f*cker who invented it, gggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

By: Kimberli

Kimberli — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:52:59 +0000

Oh my, a stunning portrait of a woman in denial. That poor child. Those poor children! Good grief. Why don’t those (tries to think of a term to describe the maniacal OCD pageant moms but can’t) just go out and buy those kids a tiara?

By: Scot

Scot — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:58:10 +0000

everyday I have to cry some

i see this all the time repeated repeated..turn it into a poem…

By: S.L. Corsua

S.L. Corsua — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:18:03 +0000

No point beating around the bush: this breaks my heart, Julie. Especially the fourth paragraph — reading it is like trudging barefoot on shards of glass. I’ve personally seen and heard children being disrespectful to their parents (even to their parents’ grave), but the other way around, well… talk about emotional abuse within a self-replicating system.