Parental Attitudes

[Guest guest]

This is from the long paper that Annie posted the link for on here recently. It

just reminds me *so much* of my own nada. It's really about how a parent can

want so much to control and dominate, and how inflexible a parent can be. It

really illustrates the stupidity and rigidity of acting this way. My nada used

to try and control the dog in the same type of way - expecting she could stop

him from doing what was in his nature. It's so sad!

Deanna

The following incident illustrates the overriding impact of parental

attitudes, even when dealing with behaviors with a clear genetic base.

[identical twin] girls were separated in infancy and raised apart by

different adoptive parents. . . . When the twins were two and a half years old,

the adoptive mother was asked a variety of questions. Everything was fine with

Shauna, she indicated, except for her eating habits. " The girl is impossible.

Won't touch anything I give her. No mashed potatoes, no bananas. Nothing without

cinnamon. Everything has to have cinnamon on it. I'm really at my wit's end with

her about this. We fight at every meal. She wants cinnamon on everything! "

In the house of the second twin, far away from the first, no eating

problem was mentioned at all by the other mother " Ellen eats well, " she said,

adding after a moment: " As a matter of fact, as long as I put cinnamon on her

food she'll eat anything. " (Neubauer & Neubauer, 1990, p. 20)