I have been well past my teens since the 70s. Since then, I’ve become a wife, adoptive mother, foster mother, foster-to-adopt mother and now a human services student earning a long-awaited associates degree so that I can become a skilled helper of children, teens, or families.
Since I was a teen, lots of things have happened to and for abused or neglected children. I’ve always been keen on helping kids and that’s become a passion. My own runaway day, though, started building when my teen years began to interfere with what my parents liked to see – complicit, compliant me.
That’s not what a teen does. It went from rebelling, lying to an overnight here and there with friends or going to concerts or anything that I could do to become independent of my parents.
THEY DID NOT LIKE IT. I persisted in being “free” and me.
When I was “found” by cops and my parents along with my kid brother, I still rebelled. I was angry for how they had treated my young brother while he grew up in a house of two other favored kids (both brothers). This unfairness is not the only reason a kid rebels but I know it had a bearing on why I rebelled. I had felt abandoned emotionally along with him.
So, to anyone who thinks that a kid is not observing or aware, that person is not aware of what kids see and take in.
Thanks for listening. Thanks to the people who didn’t give up on me and my strong-willed, noncompliant attitude, at times.
Sometimes, I think it’s the weakness others see that is the strength you have to get through the tough runaway days.
CONSIDER THIS:
- Thank you so much for reaching out with your story; it is a great sign of strength and growth.
- It is quite incredible to have gone through so much and want to still help kids, which should be applauded.
- Being “free” and “you” should be celebrated, individuality is wonderful!
HELP YOURSELF:
- Have you considered therapy to sort through what has happened in your life and if so, what were the results?
- Have you spoken to your siblings about the unfairness of growing up?
- How do you enjoy being a human services student, what are the pros and cons?
- Have you considered keeping a journal to keep track of important events from your youth?
