Deanna decoded.

As you know, the person who got to define Mira to the rest of the Pattersons is a Foob-worshipper of the most degraded sort: Deanna. Let's list her bill of particulars against her alleged monster mother and see where she might be distorting the record.

• First off, she accuses Mira of wanting to control every little aspect of her life who was not satisfied with her as she was. In short, she's got her shorts in a wad because her mother actually dared to be a parent and get involved with her child's life.
• Second, we have to deal with Mira's honesty about wanting to improve her social standing and willingness to put in the hours to make that happen being thought of as being a bad thing. This is where the Pattersonian dread of having to work towards a goal comes into play.
• We next deal with her main complaint against her mother: Mira's refusal to meekly let Deanna's DADDY!!!!!!!!! set the agenda. The monstrous Electra complex that I've commented on in the past ensures that Deanna cannot and will not see marriage as a partnership of equals who work together; her subconscious desire to kill her mother and be serviced by Wilf mandates that she envy the frothingly frustrated mess that is Elly. It also explains why she makes Mike's knavishness, idiocy and immaturity into a great and glorious thing; she wants to have a dolt husband calling the shots while she runs her sewing school.
• Fourth, she's a materialistic hypocrite. The letter in which she slanders her mother by calling her obsessed with possessions makes it quite clear that she was content to leach off her parents while her need to refuse her mother's generosity in the here-and-now is justified by wanting to inflict scarcity on her children for their own good....just like the financially incompetent Elly.

The reason for the Patterson-worship is that she thinks that Mike had a freer childhood than she did; my guess is that if she were to learn that John and Elly think that their children owe them every cent that was spent on them, she wouldn't be outraged like you or I. She'd congratulate the vermin for being spot on.