I was so glad you validated again and again a caller who gave her son the boot. I "high-fived" myself, because I also gave my son the boot some 15 years ago.
I feared things would go bad, but listening to you gave me the insight to make that decision. I heard the caller say she didn't care anymore. I also said I didn't care, but I know it was because I cared so much and had to harden my senses for a time. My son lived on the street and with various friends for a couple years. He produced a son out of wedlock. He then split with the son's mother and married someone else. Even though the child's mother was not innocent, we took both of them under our wing. I wondered how bad it would go with my son, and as the woman on your program did, we wondered when, and if, it would ever end.
We did end with good news. Five years into his “adventure" he joined the Marines at age 22. From that time to the present, he came full circle. He became gainfully employed as a result of his experience with the Marines, married the first child's mother, had 2 additional children and is raising the whole household as a “man's man.” They’re a little bit on the poor side, but he realizes that is because he lost ground as a teenager. And the kids are being home-schooled on top of it.
I’ve often wondered how it would have turned out differently if we would have catered to his “brattiness.” SO, THANK YOU DR. LAURA!
Shelley
