Despite all the love you have for your sisters, there’s an undeniable sense that you’re controlling them—shaping their paths, choosing their futures for them. Have you ever considered that your need to protect them might stem from your own deep-seated fear of losing them, or of losing control?
Honestly Tabitha would be heartbroken to learn that her sisters found her controlling, because that’s never been her intent. She wants to be a supportive presence in her sisters’ lives, a source of comfort and, yes, advice and guidance, but she would never try to choose their futures for them.
Tabitha sees the way her grandmother’s behavior has fractured the Proctor family, and she doesn’t want to make the same mistakes. She doesn’t want to tell her sisters who they have to be, she wants to help them be who they are, and she’s willing to let them decide who that is.
She didn’t try to talk Eden or Dorothy out of going to college so far away. She did ask probing questions about the decision, but it was only to make sure that they were doing what they really wanted. Even the way she pushes Dorothy to tell Elias she’s a witch is Tabitha’s way of being supportive. She knows how much Dorothy loves Elias, and she wants their relationship to last.
But her protective instinct absolutely comes from a fear of losing them, and she struggles to balance wanting to keep them safe with letting them do their own thing. Even if she’s not always successful, she tries not to be suffocating because she doesn’t want to push them away. That would be the worst way to lose them, because of her own actions.