There's a kind of inappropriate emotional closeness, it can be subtle sexualization, substitution of a child for a partner, or emotional intimacy inappropriate to a child.. Anyway, it seems that the woman writing about when she was ten and her mother confided her husband's affair to her and then expected her to simply "forget" it or "get over it" is a bit angry with her mother. Seems appropriate to me. Mom dumps one of the biggest emotional and sexual clinkers of her marriage into the lap of her ten year old daughter, and the little girl's just going to "get over it"? Wouldn't be surprising if mom dumped a few other emotional/sexual clinkers on daughter. And certainly not surprising the daughter would at least like an apology and a chance to vent her years of confusion and disappointment at being burdened with such an awkward secret. "Get over it"? I don't think it's quite that easy....