I actually think knowing that there are other kids out there who are also having family problems does make Paige feel less isolated, even if it doesn't make her feel safer.
I disagree with your assessment of her family situation as being stable. Even on a surface level, it's not stable--it might not be unusual--I think something like 40% of children from two-parent families will have their parents separate by the time they turn 16--but that's not the same thing as stable.
I remember from last season Elizabeth saying to Philip that she felt that no matter what happened, Henry would get through it. But she thought that Paige was fragile. All children are unique, all children have different tolerances for stress. We don't understand why some kids manage to thrive in truly chaotic family situations--drug addiction, homelessness, physical/sexual/verbal abuse--that cause others to act out. We don't understand why one child in a family can cope while their sibling falls apart.
In any case, I don't think she's only being stressed by what's on the surface. Her parents wanted to believe that they could shelter their children from the effects of the life they chose. Of course they did. Seeing the daughter of their friends, their comrades-in-arms, murdered in cold blood, seeing the son orphaned and grieving, shattered that illusion forever. Her parents now have to maintain an extra layer of illusion when they're interacting with their kids--they have to pretend that everything is hunk-dory when they know it isn't and it probably never was.
You may disagree but I think on a deeply intuitive level she knows something is terribly wrong with her family. Paige knows her parents are hiding something. She just doesn't know what it is. Being lied to about it is only making her feel more and more confused. Because she wants to believe them. She wants to believe that everything is fine and back to normal, or at least what passes for normal in the Jennings' household.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Re: Paige's "Crazy Life"
Date: 2014-03-29 10:18 pm (UTC)I disagree with your assessment of her family situation as being stable. Even on a surface level, it's not stable--it might not be unusual--I think something like 40% of children from two-parent families will have their parents separate by the time they turn 16--but that's not the same thing as stable.
I remember from last season Elizabeth saying to Philip that she felt that no matter what happened, Henry would get through it. But she thought that Paige was fragile. All children are unique, all children have different tolerances for stress. We don't understand why some kids manage to thrive in truly chaotic family situations--drug addiction, homelessness, physical/sexual/verbal abuse--that cause others to act out. We don't understand why one child in a family can cope while their sibling falls apart.
In any case, I don't think she's only being stressed by what's on the surface. Her parents wanted to believe that they could shelter their children from the effects of the life they chose. Of course they did. Seeing the daughter of their friends, their comrades-in-arms, murdered in cold blood, seeing the son orphaned and grieving, shattered that illusion forever. Her parents now have to maintain an extra layer of illusion when they're interacting with their kids--they have to pretend that everything is hunk-dory when they know it isn't and it probably never was.
You may disagree but I think on a deeply intuitive level she knows something is terribly wrong with her family. Paige knows her parents are hiding something. She just doesn't know what it is. Being lied to about it is only making her feel more and more confused. Because she wants to believe them. She wants to believe that everything is fine and back to normal, or at least what passes for normal in the Jennings' household.