"It is, of course, impossible to catalogue all the circumstances in the outer world that shape children. Children are products of their moment in history, of prevailing conventions and wisdom, of social crusades." (Weissbourd 27)

Lidoff, points out the value of the diconect, as it is seen through the narration of perception, rather than reality of feeling. Reflecting that one really can not know another, no matter how close one is to them or how much they wish they could, be the key to their understanding.

Mothers and daughters especially, in "I Stand Here Ironing"... are portrayed as they exist within the minds and feelings of each other: they are imaged by reflection, without the distinction between them always being clear -- to them, to us, to the narrator. The story of one becomes the story of the other with the nearly imperceptible figure-ground reversal of an optical illusion.

Lidoff...
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