My 15 year old daughters reaction to "Laptop dad"

[riderinthestorm]

239. Perhaps. I've said we don't have enough info to judge. I've also told my story

in other threads but will try again.

My 14 year old daughter began using drugs 2 months after she turned 14. She quickly escalated into hardcore drugs: heroin, meth, crack cocaine... she began prostituting herself to get the drugs and dealing them at school within a year after starting.

I have destroyed her drug paraphernalia and her drugs. I've also destroyed her 'special" hats, jewelry, clothing and other items that signal that she is 1. ready to have sex for drugs and/or 2. that she has drugs to sell at school that day. Sometimes that destruction has been done in fury, sometimes in rage, sometimes weeping, sometimes calmly and rationally. You can tell me its "bad parenting" til the cows come home but you aren't in this family, nor are you working with the school, police, rehab center and substance abuse counselors to try to save your kid.

FWIW, she's 15 now and 2 months out of rehab and 2 months sober. That in itself is a major victory but I doubt you'd see it that way, or the steps we've taken to get there, since a LOT of what looks like really "bad parenting" from the outside was necessary to get here.

Until you have walked a mile in my shoes, or any other family's shoes, it's impossible to judge. And I'll be damned if an issue like Laptop Dad and his daughter is so black and white. We do NOT have the whole story, I'm sure. I fully expected my daughter to rant about the Dad and the laptop destruction, and how he's so wrong. We're in that new, raw stage of recovery where hard truths and hurtful words are the norm so showing her the video certainly gave her ample opportunity to vent. I was prepared for that.

She didn't. My heart is strangely lighter and her calm words about Laptop Dad still make my eyes get a little watery. Her reaction feels like a victory.