Few things in life are as damaging as the burden of having such a mean, uncaring, vindictive loser of a father:

“As I’ve explained to her, there’s a good possibility by the time she’s 40 and she has a full-time job, they’re going to lay her off and hire somebody much younger for a lot lower salary,” said Clark, a white man in his 50s who has had that experience himself several times. “I’m trying to prepare [her] for a very—the very difficult world that she’s going to live in. Too few jobs and too many people. I see it coming. I think it’s going to get worse and worse and worse.”

And of course,  if anybody were to ask him why his miserable daughter has to pay for his dysfunction, he’d say he’s doing it out of love. This is the favorite excuse of abusers, after all.

Not even the best school, the most caring teachers, the most supportive friends and partners can erase this kind of parental conditioning. The girl gets the message that Daddy will only accept her if she’s a life-long victim and a loser, and even after he’s long dead, she will dedicate every ounce of her energy to living up to his expectations. Or in this case, living down.