UConn professor and clinical psychologist Dr. Sherry Pagoto is taking Elizabeth Warren’s exit from the Democratic presidential race pretty hard. But her daughter’s turmoil is making it even harder.
I… have some concerns about this thread https://t.co/1IeE4CV4CZ
— Kat (@katearthsis) March 6, 2020
As you should. Sherry Pagoto sounds like a real piece of work.
Behold:
I shared the news of @ewarren's exit with my 12 year old daughter tonight. Her response wasn’t of sadness or anger.
It was much worse than that.
A thread. 1/x
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
“She wasn't gonna win either way,” she texted back flatly, as if I was a fool to think otherwise.
DEJECTED. The worst response of all.
Let me take a step back though because she wasn’t always this way. Let’s go back to 2016.
2/x pic.twitter.com/39RBSG1Gzs
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
Or let’s not.
At 8 years old, my girl made Hillary signs with her crayons and Scotch-taped them to the telephone polls along the street. She loved to wear this homemade Hill shirt which earned her fist bumps and thumbs ups from strangers.
3/x pic.twitter.com/YO6meTW0OK
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
On election day, we blasted Beyonce’s Girls Run the World on the way to the polls. The volunteers smiled as she stomped into the gym, head held high, proudly donning her Hillary pins.
We made popcorn and a pillow fort in the living room as we watched the returns…
4/x pic.twitter.com/pkjsef57OV
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
Being 8 years old and all, she knocked out by 8pm. Right before the winds shifted.
When I told her the news in the morning, she accused me of lying.
I said, “No baby, I’m serious. She lost.”
5/x
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
She wrote Hillary a letter because she worried Hill might be upset.
She made a TO DO list of good deeds that included things like “pick up trash” because in her little mind she felt this need to right a wrong somehow. It was precious.
6/x
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
Hillary wrote back and she beamed. OMG, SHE WROTE BACK!
Ain’t that somethin'? She wrote back!
(Ok it was one of those TY cards everybody gets for writing but shhhh she thinks Hill wrote it herself).
7/x
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
Then still holding strong, she marched to Boston Common at the March for Our Lives. 8/x pic.twitter.com/qQ9Xhp1oYe
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
Four years later I tried to engage her in Warren’s campaign. It's been harder to capture her interest. Her hesitance to latch onto my excitement has felt like I was trying to talk her into a wild goose chase.
She wasn’t having it.
9/x
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
Early on somehow she got the message that Warren had "no chance of winning."
She heard loud and clear that in dangerous times the women should step aside to be SAFE.
Let a man take the lead.
10/x
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
SAFE.
These are hard times.
Don’t study. Don’t work hard. Don’t push your agenda, no matter how much you know it to be right.
MOVE ASIDE so that we can
ALL
BE
SAFE.
11/x
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
So what can I do now to revive her spirit? At 12, she’s too hardened for the innocent hope generated by pinky promises.
Do I wait 4 years to hatch a new plan to reinvigorate her 16 year old self? What if we’re in hard times again?
What if we need to be SAFE again?
12/x
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
Nah. I will open her world beyond this town,
beyond this so-called blue state,
beyond this country,
beyond these invisible, suffocating walls.
13/x
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
I will tell her about…
Jacinda in New Zealand,
Katrín in Iceland,
Sahle-Work in Ethiopia,
Simonetta in Switzerland,
Erna in Norway.14/x
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
Maybe we'll go to one or more of these places.
I’ll say,
"You see, this place we live, it’s not the whole world. It doesn’t have to be your whole world. You don’t have to wait for it. If it’s not ready for you, then go make your impact where you can."
15/x
— Sherry Pagoto (@DrSherryPagoto) March 6, 2020
You’d think that as a clinical psychologist, Dr. Pagoto would know better than to put her daughter through this. But you’d apparently be wrong.
This is insanely heartbreaking.
— Anamara Ritt-Olson (@AnamaraROlson) March 6, 2020
Yes. Our heart breaks for Pagoto’s daughter, who’s been effectively robbed of her childhood in the name of politics.
The worst part is that you’re a mental health professional doing this to your child
— Lewis P. (@_Sweet_Lew) March 6, 2020
Imagine writing this thread thinking you're normal and not currently robbing your child of her childhood. https://t.co/TNqOXDmNgq
— RBe (@RBPundit) March 6, 2020
Join the Conversation
VIP members get the ability to comment on articles.