Sal's mom needed time to herself so she left Sal and her Husband at home for a long time. “Two days before she left, when I first heard her raise the subject of leaving. she said. 'I feel set rotten in comparison.' 'Sugar, you're not rotten” (74).
Sal dislikes that her father is moving on with his life and now has Mrs. Cadaver. Sal thinks Mrs. Cadaver is no good and doesn't want anything to do with her. " My father stood there looking around the room. 'I want to tell you something about Margaret,' he said. 'Well, I don't want to hear it,' I said. I was feeling so completely ornery. When my father left the room, I could still hear my own voice saying, 'I don't want to hear it,' and I knew that I sounded exactly like Phoebe” (61).
While eating dinner at Mary Lou Finney’s house Sal later remembers what her father told her mother about having a house full of kids " 'I didn't mind,' I said. I was thinking of something my father once said to my mother: 'We'll fill the house up with children! We'll fill it right up to the brim!” (34).