I have two good friends who have domineering mothers. Ya, you may say that was way back in the past, it should not affect them now. I wish I could agree with you.
Fiona has virtually brought up her children on her own as her husband works three hours away. She only sees him during the week ends and public holidays. One morning I walked into her house, said hi to her youngest boy who opened the door. I found her weeping quietly in the kitchen. I gave her some tissues and made some hot tea. She calmed down and told me how her mother-in-law "scolded" her for putting too much water into her boiling rice. The grumpy old lady walked off in a huff to eat out while she wept over her boy's lunch cooking in the wok. Her two older children were in morning session. She was terrified of her mother since young and actually got married as soon as her husband proposed to escape from the tyranny of her all- controlling mum. It is a good thing that her mother-in-law was just visiting for a few days. Some how she shrunk into her five year old timid self once her mother-in-law raised the trade-mark loud authoritative voice. She became defenseless once again and could not stand up to the fussy old lady.
Jinny was even worse off than Fiona. In her case her ex husband used to have sway over her in all things. He demanded that she account for every penny she spent. She confessed that she could not even get one day's spending straight, let alone keep a weekly house-keeping account. Six years after leaving that abusive man, she still grabs hold of every receipt and tied them in neat bundles before storing them in boxes. It is not like he would one day appear to demand for the previous few years' receipts. For heaven's sake, the divorce had been final for three years already. She earns her own keep and lives rather well now, definitely better than those days when she had to receive allowances from him. If it was not delayed terror, why would a sane woman not be able to throw away receipts that no one would look at or check again?
No comments:
Post a Comment