‘We were never allowed our own meals or new toys – these would spoil us, you said’: the letter you always wanted to write
You and my mother divorced when my sibling was two and I was a baby. You earned a great deal of money, but my motherwas too principled to take alimony, so we were raised within the confines of her teaching salary.
As a child, you told me that I had to work for your love because “unconditional love is dangerous”. When it was your turn to have us in the summer holidays, you would cancel the cleaners that came all year round and leave us notes about chores to be completed. We were never allowed our own meals or new toys – these would spoil us, you said.