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Read other letters about this article
...simply a statement that, sometimes, the education that a parent toiled to ensure you receive ends up being the very thing that creates a rift between you.
This is a fascinating area of exploration, one that has had an immediate and visceral effect on my life. I highly recommend Alfred Lubrano's "Limbo: Blue Collar Roots, White Collar Dreams." In this book, he interviews folks whom he calls "straddlers" who grew up in blue collar homes/families but now have white collar jobs/lives. Most of these folks have struggled with identity and family relationship issues, particularly with parents.
-- A fellow Straddler
P.S. Interesting how this topic also factors into the kerfluffle on other areas of the Salon boards re: parents who satisfy their child's every material wish, and the entitled brats these children may become. One white-collar Straddler interviewed in "Limbo" said something to the effect of, "I don't want my kids to grow up to be the obnoxious rich kids I disliked so much when I was growing up."
And then these entitled, high-maintenance kids enter the workforce, creating a manager's nightmare. But that's another story.
