Discuss Lucy's relationship with her daughter Becka.

Discuss Lucy's relationship with her daughter Becka. How was hers different than Becka's relationship with William? Why do you think Becka started to pull away from Lucy after leaving her poet-husband?

Beca was the younger daughter. Lucy still felt responsible to take care of her and Beca let her do that. Lucy realized how difficult it was for Beca to be living in NY with a husband who was leaving her during a pandemic no less.
The author has shown how motherhood changes through Beca and Lucy. Once Beca went to CT, she came to understand her freedom from Trey and her decision to leave social work and go to law school. Beca was finally not dependent on Lucy’s input. She made tough decisions on her own. I think Lucy could understand Beca because Lucy had gone through similar events. Trey was leaving Beca..but Lucy made the decision to leave William after his infidelity.

I believe that when our children are going through rough times, they lean on us, as they should be allowed and encouraged to. When things get better, they are able to stand on their own more, and even adult children will pull away a little to prove to themselves that they can. This felt very natural as things with Becka got better, and she had her sister to lean on and share with. It felt normal to me that she pulled away in that way. She didn't abandon her relationship with Lucy. She just pointed it toward a more mutual relationship instead.

I think Lucy is a little too protective of her daughters. Becca once she leaves her philandering husband grows up a lot and wants to carefully change her relationship with her mother.

Lucy is the good mother. She wants everything to be perfect for her daughters, for them to be happy. If something goes wrong, she reverts to a bad mother, It must be her fault, the guilt that most abused children feel. So Lucy tries to fix everything for her daughters. Like most daughters of Becka's age they will rebel and pull away. And Lucy will worry even more; have William question the girls to see if she is doing something wrong, what else can she do to fix Becka's life, to be the good mother that exists in her head.

In some ways, Lucy sees herself in Becka. She knows the pain that Becka experiences when she discovers Trey is having an affair. It hurts, even if the partner who is betrayed by the affair knows that the marriage isn't strong in the first place and they would actually be better off out of the marriage. Lucy knows she can't heal Becka's hurt for her, and she worries about her, as all good mothers worry about their children. She feels sadness when her daughters pull away in order to figure out their own lives, again, as all good mothers do. But she's wise enough to leave her daugheters to make their own way and it's wonderful when they are reunited for a visit once it is safe to be together again.