Saturday, May 09, 2009

Well we knew that would be the outcome

He's dead.
The Napier Gunman. No doubt there will be a lot of what ifs and maybe's over the next few weeks. the discussion about arming police will continue. The worrying thing about that is having a Tory government. Shoot first. That way there are limited questions after.

On a different tack, my niece and I have been having fun with photos. The idea is that each fortnight we have an exchange of "pix" on a certain subject. Last fortnights was circles. I submitted this photo.



I haven't heard back. I spoke to my brother. My olde rbrother. His daughter (my niece is just 15) and he told me she was banned from the PC.
Turns out she has been wagging school. She was also babysitting and left her charges home alone, they were 4 and 2 years of age, whilst she went to comfort a friend "only a few streest away".
Jeez.
Where is her brain at? She is NOT from a disadvantaged family. She has 2 parents at home who love her and care for her. yet, she wags school. She sleeps around. She is rude to everyone. She has no "bad" history, no secret hurt.
What do we do? I have tried to "help" by getting into the phtotragpys thing, it is something that we both enjoy. Yet, when she visited at Xmas she took to smoking (ordinary)ciagrettes and drinking, when she thought we weren't watching.
I don't understand what this is. I am terrified my own scowly teen will head off down this track, but if she does I woould at least like to have an idea why!

9 comments:

Steve said...

Some kids like to rebel - end of. It's something they need to work through for themselves but, God, is it tough on their parents and family while they experiment off the rails. My mate at school was like this but is now as respectable as they come - married, 2.4 kids, steady job and mortgage... and keeping a tight rein on his own kids...

VioletSky said...

Sounds so scary. I don't have kids, but this would be one of my greatest fears. Yeah, it does make you wonder what it is they are missing that makes them want to rebel so seriously.

Owen said...

I know I made my parents life HELL for quite a while there, there's just no way to tell I guess what's going on with kids coming of age... just have to try to keep the gates of communication open... I've got 15 year old and a 12 year old daughters... and stories like this make me w-o-r-r-y ! Guess I'll go open a bottle of good French wine and try to f-o-r-g-e-t... makes me think of the drunk in The Little Prince... why does he drink ? To forget he has a drinking problem... Just kidding, I don't drink... much. So you still didn't say if Jackson got back to you. And there has been nary a pun out of NZ for a day or two... have the pun-wells all dried up?

The Sagittarian said...

Steve - You're right, they will do what they will do. I guess we can only hope to teach them right from wrong and sooner or later we have to leave them to it! Hard to watch tho'.

Violet - I think perhaps she is struggling at school, and taking the easy option. The year she is in is quite a tough year compared with last year and it hits a lot of kids hard to discover they have to work harder!

Owen - I was far too soft on my parents...mind you, they sent me to boarding school for 2 years so maybe I took the lesson early. Our girls are 14 and nearly 12...I cling to the hope that by the time my kids start tugging at the reigns red wine and champers will be compulsory fare for parents instead of an optional extra!!

The Sagittarian said...

Owen = BTW, Am still waiting to hear from Jackson. he will be spanked thru his well=fitting jeans when he does get here!

The Poet Laura-eate said...

yeah, what happened to stun guns and shooting to fell, rather than kill (aka in the legs?)

Sorry to hear about the irresponsible niece. No more babysitting mullah for her! Better not shop her to the Police though!

The villager: said...

Teenage girls is certainly a tricky subject, as we're starting to discover with our own.

I hope things settle down !

Owen said...

Oh my, Sag, you are too much, I left you an answer over at my place, but your ambiguous "ashoohel" remark had me on the floor laughing... it does have a ceertain ring to it, very similar to a crude english word which I won't type here, but I think the technical, poetic, linguistic term you were looking for to describe the phenomenon in question is in fact : ASSONANCE

Am I right ???!!! ;-D
Signed affectionately,
A lucky sod

PS and what I get to type to validate this comment is "poodsoun", which is exactly what that horse was saying he would have done, in the future perfect tense, if I would have been so rash as to keep bothering him...

meggie said...

It is scary. I was a beastly teenager. I felt so lucky that my daughter never was like me. My sons were ok too. I really don't know why I was such a teen shit.
I never did the smoking drinking bit, but my moods were unspeakable.