So, the other day Cynthia, being the terrible parent that she is, decided to read her thirteen-year-old daughter's email, and found that said thirteen-year-old daughter was being beaten up by her boyfriend.

They recently broke up, but apparently it had nothing to do with the beatings, apparently she didn't think that was much of a big deal. She didn't mind.

This, to put it mildly, somewhat perturbed her parents.

Last night, we had my family party, Fran made the cake, after a moment of fear that he had put the water into the mix twice like Dagwood Bumstead, and it was very nice. The girls went to bed, and we sat down with a drink and talked about sex until Katie came home.

Fortunately, the creepy girlfriend-beating ex called on the phone, but couldn't speak to Kate, it being after 11p, which nicely lead into the long, serious "nice boys don't hit their girlfriends" conversation.

It worked out very well, being a three-headed monster as we were, since we each came at the problem from a different angle. Fran, as is pretty much to be expected, is really seriously focused on finding this kid and killing him, or at least beating the shit out of him. He kept trying to find him in the phone book, but he didn't have the right spelling of his last name.

Cynthia, on the other hand, was much more in the trying to solve the problem, mother kind of mode, trying to help Katie find solutions, and bringing her round to the idea of therapy.

I, on the other hand, was the one calling her an asshole.

Well, I was, but that wasn't the only thing I said. I, more than her parents, have what being a young teenager was like much more firmly in my head. And yes, I am younger than are, but I think it is more because I have not had the distractions of having to think of anyone but myself in the years between then and now--I have no husband, I have no children, it's all about me, and Katie has always been much more like me than she has been like Cynthia, who was a very good girl, while I was a lying little conniver.

And I talked and I talked and I talked. I talked about what I know, I talked about the fact that if there is anything that Katie always has been is a person with a strong ego and sense of self. She is about the last person anyone who would expect to get into this kind of situation, and I was trying to remind her who she is, and who she knows she is.

At one point, I was talking for about ten minutes and she was staring at the table, but then suddenly she would flick her eyes up and catch my gaze and I thought, "My God, am I getting through? Am I making a difference in this child's life? Or is she just thinking that I have no idea what I'm talking about, that I don't know what it's like to be her."

I hope that I said some things that made sense, that sank in, I hope that we all did from our different perspectives. And when it came down to it, Fran's mantra was the one that we were all saying in different ways, "Nobody is allowed to hit you."

I believe in Katie, that when I said to her "In a couple of years, you will being saying to yourself, 'What the hell was I thinking?'" I was right. She will, between everyone's point of view, remember who she is, and that any guy who would hit a girl is not worth wasting your time on.

Horoscope d'aujourd'hui:
You and the family need to balance tasks with playtime today. A little compromise can allow some of both.

il y a un an aujourd'hui:
Hmmm, either war has broken out in North Jersey, or someone just set off a fuck of alot of firecrackers. If they were for my birthday, they are late!

* Hier / Incrément / Ce Mois / Demain *

La poste

Graphiques de Saundra la multilingue!
Traduction français par ma mère Gladys Holland.

Cette page a été écrite à la main. Ma main. Seulement les chats utilisent les éditeurs de HTML.
Dernier mis à jour Mardi 27 Août 01:20:09 2001