Chapter 5 - PATRICIA'S RULES
Patricia believed Ryan had done nothing wrong.
“He was hit as a child.”
Rachel answered:
“That is not evidence.”
“He turned out fine.”
Rachel looked at Ryan.
“Did he?”
Patricia stiffened.
She had raised three children under one rule:
Respect is immediate obedience.
Questions were challenges.
Refusal was defiance.
Emotion after punishment was manipulation.
David rarely struck the children.
Patricia did most discipline.
Spanking.
Wooden spoon.
Belt once, she admitted later.
Ryan had spent years telling Rachel:
“My mother was strict.”
Never:
“My mother hit me.”
Language again.
Strict sounded cultural.
Firm.
Old-fashioned.
Not frightening.
When Eli entered the family at age five, Patricia loved him in practical ways.
Birthday gifts.
School pickup.
Favorite cereal.
But she never fully accepted that Ryan was not automatically Eli’s father.
She said:
“If you marry a man, the child answers to him.”
Rachel said:
“Authority is earned.”
Patricia replied:
“That is why children run homes now.”
The argument never ended.
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Rachel thought it was generational noise.
She underestimated what Ryan heard as permission.
