Sunday 27 November 2016

My daughter said some really hurtful at Thanksgiving and I need advice.


I posted this on /r/relationships and was referred here. Maybe you folks can help? Back story: I'm Japanese, I married too young, had a kid, wised up, left. I then was able to work in Germany, met my husband (Caucasian American, important later) moved my daughter back with him to the states and got married and had two more kids (twin girls now 12) with my now-husband. So my oldest, we'll call her Niko, is legally her stepfather's, George, child and for the most part they got along well, they learned about Japanese culture and food together, George has been a fantastic dad to Niko, she's his kid as far as he's concerned, no different from our younger two. That out of the way. Niko is in her sophomore year at an ivy league university. She came home for Thanksgiving and was fine with me but was surly with her sisters and father, mostly spending her days in her room without talking to us except for meals and if she needed something, and that was usually directly with me. She also had learned some Japanese at school which I thought was great until she started using it to take shots at her dad and sisters behind their backs. I kept pushing asking what was wrong, was it school? Friends? A boy? Was she sick? We've always had a really good dialogue but its been gone for a while. George assumed it was some latent teenage rebellion that Niko never really had. So it all came to a head at Thanksgiving. George's family were all here and we made Niko come down for dinner (she claimed she wasn't in the mood) and after ignoring her cousins (also really unusual), George basically called her out and asked if she was being rude on purpose. Well that touched of a tirade of epic proportions, Niko went full tilt against Caucasian people, called me a race traitor marrying a white man, accused me of making her siblings muts. I told her to be quiet, that that was ridiculous and that was her family she was talking about, she disowned them all right there. George cut in and told her we do not speak to each other that way, she was excused, and we would talk to her after dinner in her room. She didn't listen and kept spouting off how white are Satan ,George physically picked her up and carried her kicking and screaming to her room. So following the most awkward Thanksgiving dinner ever, I talked to Niko in private and she admitted that she's been really involved in the racial protests on her campus, she even gloated that she ripped a kid's MAGA hat off and stomped on it. I told her I was disappointed in her and that she owed her family apologies the next day. She said ok and we left it. The "apologies" today were awful, she basically said to her sisters that it wasn't their fault they were half white but they have privilege and they'll need to learn to deal with it. This was what I heard at least before I walked in to check on what I thought was crying (it was, she reduced her one sister to tears). Her talk with George was no better, she sat down with him after work and basically said "I am sorry hearing the history of your race's barbarian conquests of native peoples upsets you." Followed by more preaching before George told her to go to her room. For his credit George has been as calm as can be expected with this change. We talked after the kids were asleep and he basically said it's someone at the school who is filling her head with this insanity and he wants to talk her into a transfer (however if her grades don't drop below a B he'll feel compelled to uphold their deal.) We're both really mad at her. This was the girl who cried herself to sleep in highschool when it looked like george would need a kidney transplant and she wasn't a match. She's a good kid but George is worried if we don't get her straightened out soon she'll permanently alienate her sisters. He feels like his only option is to force her to transfer, she'll probably hate us for a while but she was accepted into other schools of equal quality and transferring should be easy. George also said that if this isn't fixed soon we will have no choice but to be harder on her, it isn't fair to the younger girls to be treated that, especially at their age. I'm sorry this was so long but I really need advice. tl;dr: daughter ruined Thanksgiving with racially intolerant rant, insulted her sisters for being half white, and called her white stepfather awful things. We are sure this was spurned by people at her school and are insure what to do. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2fnb9LT

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