Idiom: Under the thumb
You may want to be at the beach or the opera, but you never want to be under the thumb of someone else.
When someone has you under their thumb, they completely dominate and control you.
It’s never a good place to be.
Overbearing, domineering, controlling people want to have others under their thumb.
These people could be a controlling father, a domineering boss or a class bully.
No matter who they are, they will try to influence you.
That way, you are putty in their hands, and they can make you do whatever they want.
When you are under someone else’s thumb, you feel helpless and powerless to escape that situation.
On the other hand (weak pun intended), having someone under your thumb puts you in a position of power and strength.
Of course, people in a position of authority or power should not abuse their power and control.
That would be the right thing to do; that would be the ethical thing to do.
Unfortunately, many abusive people would like nothing better than to have someone under their control.
To avoid finding ourselves in such a hopeless and weak position, we must be careful not to let ourselves fall into such a situation.
Sometimes it’s hard to realize ahead of time what kind of situation we are putting ourselves into.
It’s also challenging to realize when someone we know is under someone’s thumb.
It’s not what people like to discuss with their friends.
It’s embarrassing to admit that you are being controlled by someone else.
It’s especially awkward if you know that you should have known better.
What can you do?
Well, if you find yourself under the thumb of someone else, it’s never too late to ask for help getting out.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 74.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.
