There is absolutely no way Iād get away with that unpunished. Not physically, but Iād lose all phone privileges etc. Iāll bet Alice got her k-pop tickets.
Iāve seen a LOT of comments in which people state āwell, *I* wouldnāt have been allowed toā/āin *my* house weā/āif *I* had done X my parents wouldāveā.
And thatās great - that shows you have/had good parents who knew what to do.
Ella has none of that. She has Alice.
Sheās parent AND husband - yes, I said it: I think Alice has made Ella the āman of the houseā, building on her gullibility/naĆÆvetĆ© (of which IG himself was certainly capable back in the day). I think sheās taken Ellaās height (and as someone whoās the same height, grew as tall as Ella at 13 and was thought of as stronger/older when I didnāt want to be), parentification and sense that sheād been left by IG (encouraged by Mummy Dearest) and has used it to make Ella responsible for them all. Hence the mobile phone nonsense, divorce box being ticked and so on. Alice is very, very good at appearing absolutely helpless when sheās faced by any situation she wants to control, and I feel sheās playing a messed-up teenager like a fiddle. In isolation, Ellaās behaviour looks terrible, yes. But if she has been parentified, told to see IG as the enemy and undoubtedly punished if she doesnāt follow Mummyās lead, has been groomed and coached by the āmotherā into the appalling behaviour she herself exhibits, and feels sheās completely lost her father to another woman* - itās understandable, albeit beastly and atrocious.
*When youāre in an abusive household and your father goes off - for his own safety in this instance, which Ella knows deep down but canāt acknowledge - you feel as though that parent has deserted you - especially if they leave for, apparently, another. When men cheat when a girl is in her tweens/teens (and Iām not implying IG did), the girl feels as though the father has chosen another woman over her. Itās all part of the intense confusion of adolescence. You learn your expectations of men from your own father.
My mother was in a similar position to Ella (though my Grandmere would never have behaved like Alice). She felt, when she was forced to meet the woman, that her own childhood was over. She felt he had chosen the interloper over her mother and whole family. And she spent much of her life until reasonably trying to please everyone and live up to unrealistic expectations because of having been left, trying to be good enough to stick around for.
This situation really isnāt as simple as Ella being Aliceās mini-me and having a tantrum.
MOO.