Author Topic: fragments of my story  (Read 18716 times)

Portia

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fragments of my story
« Reply #45 on: March 16, 2005, 08:32:03 AM »
My God October and Sleepyhead, I’ve just read your posts and I’m almost fuming, for both of you, and for me. But I’ll keep it short. And clean.

October
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There are no pictures of me under 18 months. Lots of my two brothers as babies, including Christening pictures, but none of me.
Can you see the question in the bubble over my head? It’s one of those really practical questions that no-one likes to ask. So instead I’ll just say, this isn’t right. At least I didn’t have any siblings so very few photos is okay. But if there were ones of brothers and none of me, ouch, that knife twists. :evil:

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Also, throughout my daughter's childhood, there has been not one single comment from either my mum or dad about my daughter having anything in common with me - you know, the usual, 'you used to do that' comments.
Telling isn’t it? Do you know what was happening when you were a baby? Were your parents struggling to live with each other? Have you ever asked your Dad say, if your daughter is like you were as a child? Tried to get him talking about it? (I guess that might not exactly be easy.) Do you feel there are things you don’t know – I do, and very slowly I’m piecing some of the past together. I wonder.

Sleepyhead
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I thought I had already gone through the "anger phase"
it cycles, like a pencil drawing of a twister, starting at the widest part. Shock-anger-denial-acceptance-sadness-shock-anger…etc I think that’s the route? I think I’ve accepted and grieved and way-hey, another shock hits me and I’m angry again. But it gets easier each time, the shock is less, the anger doesn’t last so long, until, I guess there’s more sadness and acceptance than anything else. I don’t know. But I know I do keep re-cycling though those emotions. It’s almost funny observing it happen in me.

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When I was thirteen my hair started getting really greasy, so I started washing it every day.
my greasy hair at 12 was like I’d poured fries/chip-fat over it! But I wasn’t ‘allowed’ to wash it more than once a week (that was so stupid and cruel). I used to hear jokes made about my hair at school.

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My mother noticed this and immediately started teasing/bullying me: "Why are you washing your hair every day? I bet you're in looooveee! Sleepyhead's in looovee, Sleepyhead's in looovee!" God, I wish you could hear the tone of her voice!
Would you believe I can hear it? I can hear it. I’m angry for you.

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Maybe she was jealous?
Ab-so-lute-ly. Yes, for sure. And she still is. Because she’ll always be older than you. Same with me. (No, I’m not jealous of you!) My mother is jealous of me, of me simply being younger. Nothing I can do about it. :?

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She would then beam with pride of her accomplishemnt and the satisfaction of being smarter than a one year old!
Older by about one year. I do sympathise. It makes me sick. Mine does this, the flourish having done something really simple. It’s not nice to see a 2 year old in an adult body. It’s unnatural and somehow creepy.

October

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« Reply #46 on: March 16, 2005, 09:39:19 AM »
Quote from: sleepyhead
Lately I've noticed that she is even in competition with toddlers. When my niece turned one, one of her birthday presents was one of those boxes where you are supposed to put the right shape in the right hole. My mother "played" with her granddaughter in the following fashion: Niece would pick a piece up and try to put it in a hole. Mother would immediately grab the piece from here and say "no, it doesn't go there, it goes here!" and put it i the right hole. She would then beam with pride of her accomplishemnt and the satisfaction of being smarter than a one year old! :shock:  Meanwhile, my attempts to explain that the whole point of the toy is to learn through your own experience and your errors fell on deaf ears.


This is so familiar.  My mum does this all the time.  My daughter got a Boggle game (word puzzle) the other day, but mum wouldn't play with her (didn't want to risk not winning!).  So daughter played with her grandad, and mum kept coming over to her, taking the pen out of her hand, writing a word down, with a really smug look on her face, and then giving the pen back.

She doesn't get what games are for at all.  To  her it is about scoring points, and as you say, even over children.

Ns have to be perfect every time, and win every time.  If not, they won't play at all.  They prefer to watch smugly from the sidelines, content that if they did happen to join in, they would be sure to win.

October

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« Reply #47 on: March 16, 2005, 09:41:48 AM »
Quote from: Portia
Can you see the question in the bubble over my head? It’s one of those really practical questions that no-one likes to ask.



Do you mean the question 'was I adopted?'  No.  Because children who are adopted are wanted.  Worked that one out long ago.

Too similar in looks to my dad to be anyone else's.  Not sure I am related to my mum, though.   :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

Portia

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« Reply #48 on: March 16, 2005, 10:23:06 AM »
Phew! I'm glad you said what I was thinking and
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Too similar in looks to my dad to be anyone else's. Not sure I am related to my mum, though
isn't that the oddest thing? I know you're joking but...I still have to check the logic for my maternal line being biological...

October

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« Reply #49 on: March 16, 2005, 04:45:31 PM »
Quote from: Portia
I know you're joking but...I still have to check the logic for my maternal line being biological...


Who was joking??????   :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

Perhaps we are changelings.  Fairy children placed in the cot by the elves, and the human children stolen away.   8)

Stormchild Guesting

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« Reply #50 on: March 16, 2005, 06:08:47 PM »
Hi Portia, October - no, you would both be "lingchanges". Human babies put into cradles in place of the monster spawn, and left to be raised by monster parents.

Gotta get that polarity right.

Hugs to you both

Brigid

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« Reply #51 on: March 16, 2005, 07:36:21 PM »
October,

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Perhaps we are changelings. Fairy children placed in the cot by the elves, and the human children stolen away.


I can't believe you said that.  I was thinking that exact same thing when I was reading this thread and often thought I was a changeling in my home.
I always wondered why I was so different from my parents and brother in the way I felt about things, the way I reacted to things and how I expected people to treat one another.  

Thanks for saying that.

Brigid

sleepyhead

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« Reply #52 on: March 17, 2005, 09:54:24 AM »
Stormchild:
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Hi Portia, October - no, you would both be "lingchanges". Human babies put into cradles in place of the monster spawn, and left to be raised by monster parents.

Yeah, I can relate to that. There is probably some magic involved to make us look like the monster parents?

Brigid:
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Sounds like you're having a breakthrough to me so write and vent all you want. You are certainly not trying my patience and are helping me to get to some of my own buried pain when reading your deepest thoughts and hurts.

Thanks, I am still worried about taking too much space, taking people's time, but i guess if they don't want to read it, they don't have to, right? Knowing that I might be able to help someone in some small way makes it easier though. :)  Plus, this is my "job" at the moment, even my f says so when I feel guilty about not doing enough housework. He says that he benefits from it as well, not just from me feeling better, but from me being able to help him better with his problems (we can both be "people-pleasers"). Anyway, better stop talking about my f, otherwise the troll that was here the other week will come back and say that I'm boasting :wink: .

Portia: Our mothers must be related somehow... Well I do have relatives that emigrated to America (as it was known then) a few hundred years ago... Or maybe there is a special, secret school for Ns somewhere, where they go to learn how to best freak us out and how to mess with our minds as much as possible :idea: . I still don't get the hair thing though, on the one hand I'm not allowed to wash it, on the other hand she is sooo proud of having a blond daughter, almost as if it a her private accomplishment. (Yes, I waited until an egg carrying the blond gene had matured, and then I made sure that it selected a sperm that also carried it. Wasn't that clever of me?!) :roll:  And she really freaked out when I dyed my hair dark, I can tell ya'.  (I'm really getting into my americanisms here, I pick up accents even in writing :) ).  I really feel for you with the hair thing, at least I was allowed to wash it every other day. What comments did you get? I was once asked (very sarcastically of course) if I used a special comb to get my hair so "stripey". Oh, god, I just realised, due to her job, my mother usually showers twice a day! And I wasn't allowed once a day!!!Grrrrrrr!

Glad to hear you can hear her voice, that you know how bad it was, I was afraid that writing didn't really convey it, and you would think I was whining about nothing (I know, I should know better by now, but unlearning is a slow process).

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It’s not nice to see a 2 year old in an adult body. It’s unnatural and somehow creepy.

Mmhmm... It sure is. I've seen my mother whine/scream in a high voice, without words, fists and eyes squeezed closed, stamping the floor with one foot! This is pretty scary when you yourself are a child but would never behave that way.

October: Sorry to hear you had the same experience with the pictures. Very un-motherly, don't you think!? I know what you mean with the game thing. My mother would always brag about how good she was at chess, and would always want to play with my stepfather, whom she knew she would beat. However, she always refused to play with me. I wanted so much to learn and to share that with her, but I guess she wanted to keep her position as the chess-player of the family, afraid that I might grow up to beat her. As a child she would let me beat her at games, but always make it really obvious, I guess never playing for real meant never having to risk losing. :roll:

At risk of beating Longtire's record for longest post (actually I think there is one under "unanswered posts" that is longer, but I sure don't want to make it that long :shock: ), I want to share a memory that has been haunting me for years, it hurt me really bad and did a lot to make me the person I am today.

I am eleven, and we are at my grandparent's house. Being a total readaholic (escapism anyone?), I have found a book that I'm reading. To fully get the story (not for me to brag), you should now that I learnt to read, by myself, when I was four and started reading books when I was five. At eleven I was reading around ten books a week (very healthy behaviour, I'm sure), both adult and children's books, whatever takes my fancy. This particular book happens to be a book written for teenagers. My mother walks past and out of the blue (we hadn't talked for hours, no falling out or anything like that), says, in a very angry and hostile voice: "Why are you reading that shit! When I was your age I was reading the classics!" And keeps walking. I am left, stunned and hurt, my reading was the one thing I really loved, and the one thing I had always felt proud of. And she had always bragged about it/encouraged it in the past. She made me feel that my accomplishments were worth nothing. That whatever I did was never good enough. :cry:  This led me to believe (and not in a hidden belief either, but up front and unquestionable), that if I was not a genius, I was worth nothing. And that is a feeling that I have been wrestling all my life.

Two comments, things that have struck me later in life. One: My mother grew up in the middle of nowhere, in a family that was even bigger than mum's. I serously doubt that there was any way for her to have come into contact with any "classics" apart from the bible, and she is very strongly anti-religion (her parents were very religious), so I doubt that is what she meant. Two: These days she talks about Marian Keyes as if she's Shakespeare, don't get me wrong, I like Marian Keyes (and Shakespeare), but she is no closer to being one of the "classics" than the book I was reading that day.

Hope you don't think I'm bragging about the reading thing, :oops:  for me it was really no more than a survival mechanism, I had to find a world where i felt accepted, where I felt I belonged. I have been saying for years that I didn't grow up in any particular geographical location, but rather that I grew up in books. They were my only home and my closest friends.  :cry:
Rip it to shreds and let it go - Garbage

bunny

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« Reply #53 on: March 17, 2005, 10:02:55 AM »
Quote from: sleepyhead
My mother walks past and out of the blue (we hadn't talked for hours, no falling out or anything like that), says, in a very angry and hostile voice: "Why are you reading that shit! When I was your age I was reading the classics!" And keeps walking. I am left, stunned and hurt, my reading was the one thing I really loved, and the one thing I had always felt proud of. And she had always bragged about it/encouraged it in the past. She made me feel that my accomplishments were worth nothing. That whatever I did was never good enough. :cry:  This led me to believe (and not in a hidden belief either, but up front and unquestionable), that if I was not a genius, I was worth nothing. And that is a feeling that I have been wrestling all my life.


Did you ever see the Disney classic, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"? (yes that's how it's spelled in the movie) Your mom is the evil queen. She said what would destroy you because she was bitter and envious of your innocence and youth. Period. There were no classics. She is full of crap. It was all an impulsive wish to damage an innocent girl, as I imagine she was damaged earlier. You know, the witch didn't come out too well in that story.

bunny

Anonymous

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« Reply #54 on: March 17, 2005, 11:25:35 AM »
bunny,

Funny you should mention Snow White, Sleepyhead's name has always reminded me of Sleepy the dwarf but I never wanted to say that for fear of offending her.
Anyway Sleepy you sound more like Snow White than a dwarf. :wink:  :D  :wink:

Sleepy,
Did your mom have a mirror she spent an inordinant amount of time in front of? :wink:

mudpup

sleepyhead

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« Reply #55 on: March 17, 2005, 11:30:25 AM »
Mudpup:
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Did your mom have a mirror she spent an inordinant amount of time in front of?  

Yes, and I alwas wondered why she was talking to an inanimate object! :shock:

Actually, no. She was so convinced of her own greatness and beauty that she didn't need no stinkin' mirror to tell her that! By the way, she never listens to what anyone says anyway, so why would she need a mirror's opinion? :wink:  :roll:
Rip it to shreds and let it go - Garbage

Portia

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« Reply #56 on: March 18, 2005, 10:59:15 AM »
Hiya Sleepyhead, as far as I can tell my ancestors are English but I reckon there’s some Viking in there, but there’s Viking in many so…yes, from and in the UK!
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And she really freaked out when I dyed my hair dark

Good :D  As soon as I left home I pierced my ears and dyed my mid-brown hair very blonde – yay! I think kids at school thought I never washed my hair. That story about her crowing over you, doing a nyah-nyah thing about you being in love coz you’re washing your hair –that’s not a small thing. It’s a mother deliberately trying to make her daughter embarrassed and basically mocking you. Bullying. Horrible. I know you’re not making light of it, but then again, have you felt the full force of it? It’s nasty and destructive. Would you do that to any child, let alone your own? That’s a good test: think ‘would I ever do that? Would I ever say that?’ and re-think just how bad it was. It was bad. I’m sorry. :(

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This led me to believe (and not in a hidden belief either, but up front and unquestionable), that if I was not a genius, I was worth nothing. And that is a feeling that I have been wrestling all my life.
Your mother is such a sham. I don’t have your trouble, almost the opposite, led to believe I was pretty dumb but ‘bad’ with it. Have you had your genius level checked?  :D Okay, IQ is only one measure of our brains, and a pretty limited one at that (anything designed for military use has to be limited?). If you haven’t, here are some tests (not just IQ, that would be boring wouldn’t it!) , including more trustworthy timed tests. Fun if you take them seriously!  http://www.healthyplace.com/site/tests/psychological.asp#intelligence
Take care.

Anonymous

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« Reply #57 on: March 18, 2005, 02:13:09 PM »
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No point in documenting an unfortunate episode. Ie me.


I'm so sorry for the hurt that you and others who feel so unwanted and unloved have expressed.  I feel such sadness to think of it.   :( And angry!!! :x
It makes me want to go over there and shake your mothers and say:

"Wake up !!!  At least love your own child!!!"

Unfortunately, that would, as my H puts it, blow right through because both the barn doors are wide open".

Hey Mothers who don't love your children.....the barn doors are wide open and the wind is blowing right through!!!!  And what a stench is coming with it!!!

Anyway, to Portia:  I did some of those tests and  I am pleased to announce, regardless of what some A's may have said to me, in the past, I  do.........have an IQ!!!!   8)

GFN

Stormchild Guesting

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« Reply #58 on: March 18, 2005, 05:10:19 PM »
Sleepyhead, thanks! I've just come back from local bookstore. Went and found 'Trapped in the Mirror' to read, because you mentioned it here. Otherwise I wouldn't have known about it. Way  8) because... I'm in the States, you're across the pond, is this board neat or what?

Anyway, there's a coffee shop in the bookstore, so I sat down to read a bit, but only got thru the intro chapter, not into the deep stuff yet. Came on home for that. Thanks again. I'm really glad that troll flushed you out of the forest and into the light here.

hugs

storm

Anonymous

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« Reply #59 on: March 18, 2005, 05:38:10 PM »
Sleepy,
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Anyway, better stop talking about my f, otherwise the troll that was here the other week will come back and say that I'm boasting  .

Who cares what a troll thinks? They live under bridges cause nobody can stand to be around them. :x
You can talk about your f all you want. There's some pretty feisty people her anyway, (bunny, in particular, can be a real beast. :lol:) so I don't think the trolls enjoy it too much. They just lurk under their bridges. :roll:
 

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Hope you don't think I'm bragging about the reading thing,


Go ahead and brag. Teaching yourself to read at four is quite a feat. :wink:

mudpuppy