Last night ... as I was locking up ... I glanced out the door window and this 16 year old girl was coming up the porch stairs .... Never met her before ... pouring rain ... about midnight and she is knocking on my door ....
So I get IO up ... dressed .. and let her in ....
Her and her dad had a fight and he threw her out .... seems she said the word damn in an argument over her dog .... Her side of the story anyway ...
So she is 16 ... and wants to call her boy friend to pick her up ... said her grandmother tried to get her in the car ... but she would not go with her ...
What are we supposed to do with this .... I understand family problems ... But no way am I going to hand a young girl off to her boy friend ... not knowing anything about anything here ....
So I excuse myself to check whats going on out side ... slip my cell phone in my pocket and 911 in the drive way .... IO keeps her talking and calling friends ... crying on the living room floor ....
Ten minutes later ... LEO in my living room ... ( nice guy from Chile ) I hated to sneak him in on her ... but she was just too young for us to take chances with ...
Any way very nice ... well mannered girl ... dreams of joining the army and getting married and kids with her boyfriend ... talked about school and stuff like that ....
LEO did his job .. asked her some questions .. let her calm down ... and escorted her back home to daddy ...
IO did her normal thing ... exchanged phone numbers with her ... told her to cal if she needed any thing ... hugs .. made a new friend like she always does ....
This is the second under age girl to come knocking on my door ... me a perfect stranger .... I'm glade to help ... but this is not a safe thing for little girls to be doing ....no wonder so many end up missing on the news ...
Lucky for that girl you guys are so nice and helpful and did her no harm.
Hopefully she can work things out with her family....
Thanks for sharing..it is stories oike this that help me learn to be a better parent...I am awhile away from the teenager thing, but some days I am not so sure.
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"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Well...I hope so. I think the mistakes many parents make is that "I have a good girl...so I will be ok" and then they dont stay in the game and watch out for anything unusual because "My kid is good..she is smart and can figure out right from wrong" Whatever. I just have to make sure she knows she can talk to me about anything...its touch now since she is so young and when she says certain things that are just repeated from other kids (silly kid stuff)...I have to remember not to go ballistic and make her start building up a guard wall to hide behind ..if there is something ever serious to talk about.
She is still young enough and I dont have to explain when Myley Cyrus does some dumb teenage thing ....she does not care about the news...still is happy just with the whole "TV world" She does hear an occaisional sad story from time to time and we explain it as well as we can....or just distaract her. I will enjoy this innocent age while I can.
Its easier explaining a drag queen to a 6 year old than to a 9 year old, huh? Thats another thread.
Where's US when you need him?
Its so tough, but I have help and nieces who are much older than her who can help me talk sense into her when she starts that teenager stuff.
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"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
the only think I can say is ... open a line of communication now ... and ... try your best to keep it open ... and an open mind as she gets older ...
Put yourself in her situation and think of how you might have reacted at the same age. That is one think that helps me with the kid. I was very naive when I was younger ... and in some way I still am ...
sometimes I am too trusting of others ... even strangers ... than I should be ... but I think that comes from my parents not letting the bad things around me or me be around the bad things or people. Teaching me that it is always best to tell the truth ... no matter how it hurts ... so people that lie ... or thinking that anyone would lie on purpose ... escapes me ...
Keep this in mind ... maybe it will help you out some time.
Well...I hope so. I think the mistakes many parents make is that "I have a good girl...so I will be ok" and then they dont stay in the game and watch out for anything unusual because "My kid is good..she is smart and can figure out right from wrong"
What irritates me even more is when the kid eventually does mess up, and the parent can't believe that their "good kid" has actually done something wrong. They'll deny even the most obvious evidence.
We had a mom like that who caused problems for the whole neighborhood. Her kids knew they could get away with anything, because they would always be little angels in her eyes. Now her kid is hanging around with the neighborhood drug dealer, and Mom says, "He's just trying to get him to go to church!"
