Hillary Clinton
Related: About this forumRevealing, and somewhat disturbing: Hillary Clinton Draws Scrappy Determination From a Tough, Combative Father
"As a little girl, if Hillary Rodham forgot to screw the cap back on the toothpaste, her father would toss the tube out the bathroom window. Shed scurry around in the snow-covered evergreen bushes outside their suburban Chicago home to find it and return inside to brush her teeth, reminded, once again, of one of Hugh E. Rodhams many rules.
When she lagged behind in Miss Metzgers fourth-grade math class, Mr. Rodham would wake his daughter at dawn to grill her on multiplication tables. When she brought home an A, he would sneer: 'You must go to a pretty easy school.'
Mrs. Clinton has made the struggles of her mother, Dorothy Rodham, a central part of her 2016 campaigns message, and has repeatedly described Mrs. Rodhams life story to crowds around the country. But her father, whom Mrs. Clinton rarely talks about publicly, exerted an equally powerful, if sometimes bruising, influence on the woman who wants to become the first female president.
The brusque son of an English immigrant and a coal miners daughter in Scranton, Pa., Mr. Rodham, for most of his life, harbored prejudices against blacks, Catholics and anyone else not like him. He hurled biting sarcasm at his wife and only daughter and spanked, at times excessively, his three children to keep them in line, according to interviews with friends and a review of documents, Mrs. Clintons writings and former President Bill Clintons memoir."
http://t.co/LxfS5ft51H via NYTimes
DURHAM D
(32,609 posts)It was what it was.
DeepModem Mom
(38,402 posts)both physically and verbally, I think would be considered today somewhere on the abusive scale. It disturbs me that Hillary was treated in that way as a child. Clearly, she overcame!
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)To climb. She has faced climbing many mountains and still climbing. It was somewhat easier by the time she hung out her shingle but time has made it easier on women after her. Still she advocated for issues which wasn't as popular and still has the passion to pursue them further. She is strong, smart and experienced.
Herman4747
(1,825 posts)Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Cha
(297,232 posts)sufrommich
(22,871 posts)me that she never mentions her dad.It sounds like there's good reason for that.
DeepModem Mom
(38,402 posts)Control-Z
(15,682 posts)Not just the cap on the toothpaste but squeezing from anywhere but the bottom of the tube got me knocked across the room. A report card with all As but 1 B+ got me a beating. I was always in trouble, it seemed. Couldn't seem to do things right or good enough.
I suddenly have a much better understanding of who, and why, Hillary is. The perfectionist. Always going the extra mile. I'm so glad she had her mother's support for so many years.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)And to you.
Control-Z
(15,682 posts)I hope you don't know this from your own experience. Though, I'm afraid you probably do.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)anyone who ever felt "not good enough" and especially with people who had that poison reinforced by people who are supposed to care for them.
Control-Z
(15,682 posts)I really appreciate your ability and willingness to be so empathetic.
The world needs more like you.