Thursday 28 December 2017

My 17 yr. old daughter is pregnant


I adopted my daughter from an abusive family member when she was 6 months old. There's no brighter light in my life. Admittedly, I made a rush decision in adopting her, I just wanted her out of that house. Many of my other family members were on the side of her father, and I didn't get a lot of help in parenting her. So, my parenting style is very unique. It's how I wished I'd been raised. But, it works well for us. We have a lot of trust in each other. She tells me everything, and I don't try to micromanage her decisions. I just give her tools to make choices on her own. She told me that she's been drinking at parties, I just tell her about date rape drugs, drinking and driving. When she told me she was having sex, I got her condoms and BC, taught her about safe sex, consent, and coercion. I can't manage her every second of the day. And if I just tell her no, she'll still do it anyways. It's so much more important to me that she knows how to be safe while she's doing something, and later be able to make the choice of whether or not to do it, then to make one risky decision and never be able to make another choice again. I know that my daughter and her boyfriend have sex. I know that she sometimes smokes weed. I know that she drinks. I'm okay with that. I can't stop it.Every year, just after Christmas, my daughter goes with 5-8 of her friends and a chaperone (a friend's mom) to a cabin in the woods. I trust them to go. There has never been any behavior that I feel would put her at risk. During their trip, they all put their phones in a bucket, and don't get to touch them until they leave. It's a "wilderness bonding activity." Honestly, I appreciate it. Again, nothing sketchy about it, it's just kind of like camp. Anyways, my daughter left two days ago. Last night, she called me. I was really worried, so of course, I answered right away. She seemed confident and okay. She told me that she'd been sitting on some information for a while, and she felt horrible about not telling me. I asked if she was okay, she said she was fine, just pregnant by her boyfriend. I asked if he had coerced her, or assaulted her. She said no, they'd just forgotten a condom.I asked what her plan was, and she said she was going to keep it, and try to finish out high school while pregnant. She asked what I thought, and I said I didn't know, because I don't. I asked if she had proof, and she said there was an ultrasound in her sock drawer. Sure enough, there it was. I let her go back to her camping trip, and now I've just been thinking. Is this on me? Should I have put my foot down a while ago? Obviously, I'm going to try to support her and give her a roof over her head, but what do I do? What can I say? via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2Ch5Bux

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