Eleanor Axt > Recent Status Updates

“Men like Michael did not become their fathers, but they have not completely abandoned the urge to control women. It is instead transformed into instruction that is generous with everything except the space to form your own opinions. I wonder if men had more space to acknowledge and heal from their trauma, would the result be a more thoughtful relationship to safety?”

“Come, Mr. Frodo. I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you and it as well. So up you get! Come on Mr. Frodo, dear!”

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

“Selfish genes do not imply selfish organisms: a gene can be perfectly selfish and yet contain the instructions for building a perfect altruist, if that’s what it took to succeed under the conditions the gene evolved in.”

“This isn’t Juno. Nobody wants no high school drop out Black girl’s baby. Especially nobody who’s got the kind of money it takes to adopt. And before you say there’s always foster care, you better think about what you’re saying.“

“Parents in [the US] try so hard to get their children to love each other and what they get is constant squabbling. Parents in traditional societies make no effort to get their children to love each other and it happens [naturally]…. Because [American] parents think their children should be equal, they try to keep the older one from dominating the younger one, and [then they end up] resenting the younger one.”

“I doubt [that] people drag the emotions and behaviors they acquire in their sibling relationships to their other relationships. The patterns of behavior that are acquired in sibling relationships neither help nor hinder us in our dealings with other people. They leave no permanent marks on our character.”

(In fact, the only studies in which birth order is significant are those judged by parents and siblings.)

“…and Frodo wouldn’t have gotten far without Sam” 🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

I’m so done with Smeagol’s ass

In response to “what’s taters?” it does kill me that Sam doesn’t actually say “po-ta-toes? Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew?”

“If you want to get a child to love you, then you should just go and hide in the closet for three or four hours. They get down on their knees and pray for you to return. That child will turn you into God. Lonely children probably wrote the Bible.” - Baby, age 12

“…what the Wizard is up to. The confining of Animals back onto farms—to give the dissatisfied Munchkinlander farmers the impression he’s doing something for them—and also to provide forced labor for the sinking of useless new wells. It’s vile.” - Boq

Huh. Sounds familiar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“People gave you a hard time about being a kid at twelve. They didn’t want to give you Halloween candy anymore. They said things like, ‘If this were the Middle Ages, you’d be married and you’d own a farm with about a million chickens on it.’ They were trying to kick you out of childhood. Once you were gone, there was no going back, so you had to hold on as long as you could.”

“What? They believe in evil still? Isn’t that funny? That deity is passé but the attributes and implications of deity linger?” - Galinda

I love research. Our leaders should consult it more.

Children of hippies, parents with an open marriage, single parents, and/or queer parents are “as bright, as healthy, and as well adjusted as children who live in more conventional families.” - Weisner, T.S. (1986) Implementing new relationship styles in American families (published in “Relationships and development” (pp. 185-205).