Where the daughter sees power, the mother feels powerless. Daughters and mothers, I found, both overestimate the other's power - and underestimate their own.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The relationship between parents and children, but especially between mothers and daughters, is tremendously powerful, scarcely to be comprehended in any rational way.
When a mother quarrels with a daughter, she has a double dose of unhappiness hers from the conflict, and empathy with her daughter's from the conflict with her. Throughout her life a mother retains this special need to maintain a good relationship with her daughter.
Raising a daughter is hard work. There's no other way to describe it for me.
One thing all stage mothers share is an overpowering ambition for their daughters.
The mother-daughter relationship is the most complex.
Women as mothers grapple with corresponding contradictions. The adoration they feel for their grown daughters, mixed with the sense of responsibility for their well-being, can be overwhelming, matched only by the hurt they feel when their attempts to help or just stay connected are rebuffed or even excoriated as criticism or devilish interference.
The mother must socialize her daughter to become subordinate to men, and if her daughter challenges patriarchal norms, the mother is likely to defend the patriarchal structures against her own daughters.
Each underestimates her own power and overestimates the other's.
The powerlessness of the child is often forgotten. And after it comes the terrifying phase of moving into adulthood.
Mothers unconsciously allow more latitude to sons, and open encouragement, and with daughters they treat them as they would treat themselves.