Wow, it’s been a pretty crazy couple of days, and I think at this point, I just need to get some of this out, because churning on it in my head is just making me sick to my stomach.
My daughter. Sigh. She’s 13 going on fricken 30. And had you asked me a month ago, I’d have said, “we’ve got this! She’s my good girl!” And a month ago, I believed that.
On friday, I got a call from her school. She took off from school after getting into an argument with some teachers. They didn’t know where she was. Thankfully, I was home, and I tracked her down. Told her to get her butt home and that she was going to lose her phone and computer for this infraction – as it’s happened twice now in two weeks.
My bro was over and he took her computer from her room and collected her phone from her when she came in the door. I figured – ok we’ll handle this and move on. But then the bro started peeking into her phone. I check her email and her facebook every other month or so, but I don’t check her phone. If only I had.
I won’t go into all the details here – even tho purging it would do me some good. But let’s just say that I had to call the police and report a grown man for inappropriate conduct with a minor. My daughter gave out our new home address and explicit instructions on how to get around some of our security to multiple strangers. She’s been talking about suicide and very graphic, very dark things with a lot of her friends. Honestly, it felt like I was in the twilight zone. I had to read it all, had to get all passwords for everything and go through it all. There were some things in there that I will never get out of my head again. The joys of loving someone.
We’re all rallying around her. She’s got consequences, but more than that, she’s about to find out what it’s like to have full on supervision and structure and therapy. She’s going to hate it at first, but damn it… I want my little girl to make it in this big bad world. And at this rate, I’m not so sure she’ll make it another year.
I’m shocked. Appalled. Pissed. Scared. Hurt. But more than any of that… because I’m her mom, I feel like I’ve failed her. I know that, realistically, I haven’t. And that what we do now, moving forward will be the test on whether I truly succeed or fail in helping her find herself.
The ex is fully involved in all of this, and in some ways, he did make me feel a little better because he was internalizing all of this too – blaming himself. Did we do this? Did we not set a good example? Did we forget to do something to ensure that our children flourished as amazing kids, even through the teen years? Normally, anyone who meets or interacts with my kids says how awesome they are. Polite, well mannered, happy, affectionate, strong and opinionated. These are the adjectives I’m used to hearing. It was strange and shocking to suddenly hear “Mean girl.” “Bully.” “Rude.” from her new teachers. That’s not my kid! Did someone hit her with a stupid stick?!
The next few weeks shall be interesting. My child will be experiencing a luddite life… no more computers, no more internet, no more phones. No email, facebook, skype, youtube, whisper, or kik. I’m also going to look into some youth group programs and volunteer programs for her. She needs to realize how good she has it and learn to see how dumb these actions have really been.
I went and talked with my dad this morning about it all. Got some advice. It’s hard, some of what she’s doing I can relate to, but a lot of it, I can’t. I know how I tackled depression and self worth issues, but I wasn’t that kind of kid. I didn’t do drugs and I didn’t experiment with sex until I was 18. So I’m trying my best to at least try and understand from her perspective…. it’s just hard. I guess I’m old fashioned. I just hope my hair doesn’t all go grey from this. At least when my son finally becomes a teenager, I’ll have some practice and experience under my belt!!
Goodnight neverland. Much love.
