How to Destroy Someone’s Sense of Worth from Childhood On…
When I was a “preteen” I was fat, I’d been fat since I was 8. Being fat in the late 1950s and living in a lower middle-class family was not the recipe for psychological growth and self-esteem.
I knew that eating less and exercising might help me lose weight. But my parents pushed the “clean your plate” mantra — after living through the Great Depression. My younger sister, who was what was then called a “picky eater” was not lectured as much as I was.
For one Christmas, I wanted a bicycle. I didn’t get one, but my thinner, prettier sister did. “You’re too big to ride one safely” was the parental misguided reasoning. So, for several summers, I sneaked around to ride my sister’s bike.
After high school I wanted to go to college, but my father told me he wouldn’t even pay for my admission applications. “You never finish anything you start, and I don’t want to waste the money.” At my 50th high school reunion I learned that I had the highest IQ of our class. I guess no one told my father. He then made me apply to an inexpensive nursing school that was not my choice. My high school English teacher was upset about me going to nursing school. “You should go to college. You should write.” My sister, of course went to college but had to drop out because of her grades or partying — no one told me which.
