I get the impression posters think money, lots of money within the family answers abusive, emotionally neglectful and cold parenting.
Saying rich ppl should "get over it" is not going to happen. At age 46 she may still be working thru the mental turmoil from her upbringing. Loads of cash never clears the emotional trauma. It may take her a lifetime to heal. Someone asked. "What has she brought to the table"? My answer is: a book which possibly opens conversation directed at abuse. Abuse happens across the board on all economic levels.
I wonder just how much courage it took her to write and publish her thoughts.?? :therethere:
I T O T A L L Y A G R E E ! ! !
Seventeen years ago, my new mother in law handed me an article she clipped from a magazine. It was written from the perspective of a woman who sent her 6 year old daughter to an extended summer camp..Her daughter didn't want to go, cried, begged, and pleaded not to be sent away. During her summer there, she wrote sad letters home, begged to be brought home, cried about her deep misery. The mother/author congratulated herself heartily on keeping her daughter there, for her own good of course, even though at the end of the summer her daughter had STILL not adjusted to camp and was sad and angry.
Well, it has been seventeen years since I read that article, at my mil's insistence, so some details might not be perfect, but that is the gist of the article. The mom was making the point that she was righteous to be tough, even on a six year old, because life is tough and kids need to be toughened. My mil was looking for me to agree with the author of the article.
I knew what she was REALLY looking for was absolution for being emotionally abusive towards her own children in their young childhoods.
I dutifully read the article and then told her I felt the author was not only abusive but also narcissistically praising herself while at the same time PUBLICLY belittling her six year old daughter for being "weak" and imperfect.
Only afterwards did I notice that Martha Stewart was the author. Since that time, I have always thought of her daughter as that sad, terrified, and abandoned six year old i wish i could have held, comforted, and loved. I'd say she has reason to still be working through her anger, even while still trying to gain her mother's love and approval. She has my deepest empathy AND sympathy.
ETA: I find it highly significant that since Alexis is now 46 and this article was 17 years ago, Martha wrote it when her daughter was TWENTY NINE YEARS OLD. Why did her own mother feel such a need to do that, to STILL be justifying her action all those years later and belittling her daughter's feelings, INVALIDATING her daughter's feelings to a public readership at large? For those who have a problem with Alexis making money publicly criticizing her mother, I have to say PAYBACKS ARE HELL, and it appears the daughter is simply following the example her mother set for her. She has my blessings. I hope someday she is done, feels FREED, and can move on happily.
