Booboos to Tattoos

Saturday night, 11/20/10 How ironic, I was posting the old articles I wrote back in the day when I was first contemplating writing a blog, thinking, “Wow, my daughter and I have come such a long way!” She’d doing great and we’ve been getting along like I’ve always dreamed we could. I signed out of the dashboard, and within ten minutes there was a call from the police. Long story short, I had to go to Wal-Mart, where they had…

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8/15/2009 Me, being a knowledge addict, went directly online and tried to learn about Ecstasy and what glow sticks and pacifiers had to do with anything. I found some sites that not only cleared all that up, but scared the hell out of me. She was in danger – the whole scene revolves around heightened sensations and loss of inhibitions. That’s beyond dangerous for a fifteen-year-old who already thinks she’s invincible. I researched for the entire two weeks she was…

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8/1/2009 Over time, her attitude became really surly with me and she slept sometimes for 15 straight hours, only waking up when I made her. She had no energy and lost weight. I chalked it up to growing and just being a teenager. I had no suspicions and no one told me anything. It took her leaving on a community service caravan to get to the bottom of things. I searched her room and found a cache of disturbing items:…

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7/23/2009 I caved and allowed her to come home, asking to please have her father call me before making any final decisions or arrangements. Not only did he never call me, but he booked her on a flight home for the next day. The guy who has never paid a dime in child support suddenly has money for a next-day fare. He couldn’t boot her fast enough, apparently. My heart broke for her right then and there. My mother and…

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7/21/2009 At best, she had a marginal relationship with her father at the time. Unbeknownst to me, she had been plotting this for some time, even picking fights with me so I would be desperate to send her there. Nevertheless, I allowed it and off she went in March of 2007, in the last quarter of seventh grade. It was one of the most heartbreaking days of my entire life, worse than any funeral I’ve been to. Because it was…

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July 20, 2009 Back Story: Tough Decisions This is about my daughter mostly, but also about the struggles of being her mother and making tough decisions. My now fifteen-year-old-daughter has always been one to challenge me – my authority, my intelligence, my patience, my temper. She was born strong-willed. Born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck and totally blue, she fought through it without missing a beat. She was always tough, and intimidated the boys in elementary school…

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