jaylar
Although it seemed I was hands off, oblivious and complacent, I was more than a bit careful.
I put security features on my credit card so that if Gabi took it, she couldn’t use it.
I searched her room when she wasn’t there, looking for everything from drugs to birth control pills to stolen objects.
The most I found was her diary, well hidden, in which she wrote horrible bits about me, about other kids at school, named Brad an Android, and random things of minor nature. It wasn’t all that upsetting. My concern was that she wasn’t doing drugs, stealing, smuggling boys into her bed.
As nothing like that was mentioned in her diary I felt easier.
Reading her diary, however, gave me an insight into exactly how spoiled and self centred she was. How she virtually saw life as if she were the centre of the world.
Reading a diary is not good. Do not do it again. Who is Brat 19??
this is a fiction story. Ellen read her daughter’s diary as a form of knowing what she was doing.
Oh!!! I am very sorry. I misunderstood it. If it is a fiction story I think it is ok then. I thought it was real.
I write mostly short fiction stories..
i can understand the balance between trusting your child, and then when that trust is destroyed. The story continues its very interesting evolution!
Ellen, (the mother in this story) gave Gabi ‘space’ but kept her eyes and ears open. She looked through the diary … to see if there was anything going on…
that is a risky path at best, interesting choice. I really enjoy the story.
When you are a parent you have to know what is happening without tipping your hand. I became an exec. member of the PTA so I could pop in to the school at various points, unknown to child to get the ‘vibes’.
it is important to have all the possible information, but there are lines of privacy that should be respected.
Not when it’s your child. Rem. You are responsible. You don’t let the kid catch you. A kid of 12 doesn’t fall in with the wrong crowd unless the parents are oblivious.
A wise man (dr. Spock) once said “beware what you teach your child. Not when you are lecturing or explaining. Beware what you teach them with how you act and behave.
yes, you are responsible, but you are responsible for raising a good person.
Children watch their parents and parents are to be parents, not pals.
agreed. But, when we do things as parents that we know are wrong, children learn that as well.
it is a balance, a fine line. Your job as a parent is not to raise children. It is to guide them to be good people.
If a parent is a hypocrite that’s the worst. I recall a woman slapping her son shouting, “Don’t use your hands!” because he had slapped another kid.
I was cracking up and my kid, who was little said, “Wha she tell him nah use him hands and she a slap him up?” (my kid spoke patwa) And me, I said, “It is not working is it?”
that is the balance we have to keep. do the right thing.
I have never read someone’s diary.
The mother, Ellen, wants to know what’s going on