“It was a lot to carry out of a childhood--all those textured layers of thwarted dreams rumbling under the fifties patina--but a lot of us did it. In those manicured lives and choreographed marriages there was an often-pronounced loneliness, an emptiness that we would try to fill with our own accomplishments. And our role, the one we would have so much trouble trying to shed later, was simply to be the best little girls in the world, the high- achieving, make-no-waves, properly behaved little kittens.” WorldTryingLittlesDreamGirlRolesTroubleChildhoodAchieveLonelinessWaveAccomplishmentBeing The BestEmptinessLayersShedKitten Author:Anne Taylor Fleming
“It was palpable, all that wanting: Mother wanting something more, Dad wanting something more, everyone wanting something more. This wasn't going to do for us fifties girls; we were going to have to change the equation even if it meant . . . abstaining from motherhood, because clearly that was where Mother got caught.” IfsMotherGirlDadCaughtMotherhoodEquationsAbstaining Author:Anne Taylor Fleming