[Leslie L.]

Be more emotionally honest in your questions. Why in the world do you think we’re taken aback? My older daughter, now a college freshman, went through a phase when she was 15 of cutting herself with kitchen knives, all up and down her arms and legs. She told my other daughter, a friend, and her doctor before she told me, since she anticipated I would be horrified. When she finally told me, yes, I was horrified, but someone from the Oscars committee should have been there to hand me my acting award, because I hid it from my daughter and all she got from me was warmth, love, concern, and my desire to help. What’s to understand? How could I understand anything except that her cutting herself was an expression of some dark desperation inside her that I hadn’t known of? I couldn’t then, and can’t now, understand what someone gets out of physically damaging himself/herself on an ongoing basis. Now that my daughter is on Celexa and is feeling so much better, she can’t understand it herself. She feels terrible about having done it and wants to forget that that part of her life ever happened, so I haven’t mentioned it in a long while. From where she’s at now, she herself can’t explain it to me–not that her explanations at the time made any real sense to me. You’re in a vortex and can only pull yourself out by wanting to, and accepting help. What you’re doing is not normal. It’s not some kind of acceptable alternative behavior choice. It’s bad for you. Your mom will be freaked out, but if she’s normally a pretty nice person, you need to bite the bullet and tell her about it and let her deal. If it would help you work up your nerve, tell a doctor first.

User Detail :  

Name : Leslie L., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 51, City : Lansing, State : MI, Country : United States, Occupation : Teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Leslie L.]

My older daughter, a college freshman, has an astonishing knowledge of rock and popular music. She knows everybody now current, in all genres, and all the popular artists of the ’90s, ’80s, ’70s and ’60s. You can’t stump her until you get into some of the more obscure stuff from the ’50s. Where she mentally stores all that, I don’t know. My younger daughter, a high school sophomore, doesn’t have that Velcro memory. She prefers today’s stuff, although she does have a few classics she likes – including, of course, ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ (Oddly, she and all her friends have also picked out Boy George’s ‘Karma Chameleon’ as a particular favorite.)

What do I think? I love that they like some of the same stuff I did, and for the same reasons. I’m afraid it’s not a two-way street; I don’t like much of what my younger daughter listens to because it’s too dark and Goth and miserable as far as I’m concerned. No love songs, and pictures of the artists smiling strictly forbidden.

User Detail :  

Name : Leslie L., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 51, City : Lansing, State : MI, Country : United States, Occupation : Teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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