Comments on: Disturbing Things I’m Learning from My Book Tour

By: robin johnson

robin johnson — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:27:54 +0000

as a mom of several children, including a daughter now 5, i am stunned, but grateful to know what the world is like today for teens and tweens. cait broke my heart; her emails to her bff.. who turned out to be her mama.. Just finished social lives. could wendy come speak to one of the several women’s orgs i belong to? let me know. – robin j. in fairfield county

By: Mimi Hodgkins

Mimi Hodgkins — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:45:14 +0000

PS – Just read your request to share stories. Since I have a 15 year old granddaughter, it’s been 25 years since I faced the horrendous position of being a parent of a 15 year year old girl who started going astay. She quit school when she was 16 (and I was a single parent at that point walking around with open wounds, so to speak) and she got involved with the wrong guy, way too old for her and fresh out of jail. I did my best, but was unable to influence her to change her ways. She really hated me at the time for trying to rain on her parade. Long story short, she was semi-promiscuous for a few years, decided to get her GED, got a BA in Art History, graduating cum laude with honors, met and married THE most amazing, wonderful man, got an MA in Education and is raising three wonderful kids with her husband of 16 years. Life is not perfect, they’ve had their ups and downs, yet throughout their marriage, I see the deepest mutual respect for one another & that sparkle that you see in the eyes of lovers. So, I’m not sure what the moral of the story is, but seeing your child get off to the wrong start does not always have a tragic ending. You have to continue to show them the love and hope they will find the path to a good, respectable life filled with love. Hopefully, this can apply to the affluent who may be influenced by many “shallow” and “meaningless” ways.

By: Stacey Conti

Stacey Conti — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:56:39 +0000

Wendy, thanks for passing along this disturbing information. I thought it so important that I passed it along to numerous friends. Striving to be a good parent requires being equipped with even the most troubling knowledge. Keep up the good work!

By: Mimi Hodgkins

Mimi Hodgkins — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:49:22 +0000

Wendy, I’ve read these horrific findings elsewhere. It’s a sad situation on so many levels, starting with parent/teenager relationships. If you fuck up as parent from day one and are unable to connect with your pre-teen or teenager when communication and sharing of information is so important, the picture gets worse. Teenagers are hell-bent on being independent and very much influenced by their peers. Being a parent is THE single most important role and being a really good, responsible, loving, focused, parent is THE single most challenging role. I’ve got to hope that a parent who has their child’s deep respect has a far better chance of influencing their teen to choose the high road, the respectable road, the road to a better start in life. How terribly sad for a girl to have so little self-respect that she thinks power over a male is the way to go & that keeping a guy in a perpetual state of orgasm is the way to have power & control. Serious health risks are very real in this dangerous game as are risks of irreparable damage to the psyche, heart and soul. Everyone deserves a chance to experience the beauty of sex when
there is mutual love, respect, adoration and passion. This is not the way. Thank you for your honest discussion and bringing a serious subject to the attention of many people.