Why did my father have to take a wife? He didn’t want one. But here she is, with her nasty daughter. They torment me constantly.

Now in the middle of winter, when the snow has piled high as the windows, my stepmother is ordering me to wear a paper dress and go out to find her some strawberries.

Strawberries don’t grow in the winter! My paper dress is already ripping. One way or another, whether I go or I stay, I’m going to take a beating.

Girl in a Paper Dress in The Three Little Men in the Forest, Grimms 1812. Illustration by Anne Anderson.

Have you ever worked for someone who wanted to get rid of you? What did they do, and how did you respond? How did you free yourself from that situation?