vonheute
May 8, 2011, 02:20 PM
We have a beautiful, 21 year-old-daughter who is CONSTANTLY on her Blackberry and has had her share of self-inflicted problems in the past: 1 DUI (she bought herself a high-priced lawyer and was acquitted even with 2.0 BAC), never showing us her grades after attending a $50k year private university and finally, she dated some jerk who beat the hell out of her face(she had to go to the emergency room)and she refused to press charges (she was over 18 and we failed to persuade her to do so). She also has horrible credit, pay about $300 a month for car insurance, but she does work and pays most of her bills on time. We stopped supporting her after her first year of college, and she presently lives at home with us. Sometimes she doesn't come home at hall and merely texts my wife that she's staying over her friends place. She's now in community college and we guess she's doing okay (she's paying for it - we still never see her grades).
That's the background. She's had plenty of opportunities to be successful as she graduated with excellent grades from private middle & upper schools. We had high hopes for her as our philosophy has been "You can peruse any dream in life, just do the very best you can, and be strive to be the best in whatever you decide to in life".
So that's the background. Recently, on a family vacation, I made arrangements to stay a 5 star resort. Everything was great the first couple of hours - we checked in to a fabulous room, had dinner that cost nearly $400 (three of us) and then decided to go for an evening swim to the pool. Well, she decided that she wasn't interested in swimming, had a few glasses of wine, and evidently off to the beach talking with some dude she just met. I asked my wife to text her as to her whereabouts, and that's how we found out she was on the beach. At 12:20am I called (no answer) and texted her Blackberry to come back to the hotel as we were worried about her (Natalee Holloway comes to mind). She texted us back that she was all right, but would not pick up the phone. Was it her texting us or the dude she just met? Needless to say, she finally came back to our room after 1:00am and she was pretty buzzed and mouthy to us. I asked her why she wandered off like that with all the crazy stuff going on in the world today - especially with someone she just met. In the end, she continued to ramble and argue that we were wrong and she was "only two buildings away from the hotel" and that the reason she didn't pick up the phone when I called was because she was "in the middle of a conversation".
We are not over-protective parents, but worry about her judgment. In the end, my wife and I decided she was being a creep - we cancelled the rest of our vacation and returned home. Now our daughter refuses to acknowledge that we had a right to be upset. No apologies, just anger towards us. I believe we made the right decision - what say you?
That's the background. She's had plenty of opportunities to be successful as she graduated with excellent grades from private middle & upper schools. We had high hopes for her as our philosophy has been "You can peruse any dream in life, just do the very best you can, and be strive to be the best in whatever you decide to in life".
So that's the background. Recently, on a family vacation, I made arrangements to stay a 5 star resort. Everything was great the first couple of hours - we checked in to a fabulous room, had dinner that cost nearly $400 (three of us) and then decided to go for an evening swim to the pool. Well, she decided that she wasn't interested in swimming, had a few glasses of wine, and evidently off to the beach talking with some dude she just met. I asked my wife to text her as to her whereabouts, and that's how we found out she was on the beach. At 12:20am I called (no answer) and texted her Blackberry to come back to the hotel as we were worried about her (Natalee Holloway comes to mind). She texted us back that she was all right, but would not pick up the phone. Was it her texting us or the dude she just met? Needless to say, she finally came back to our room after 1:00am and she was pretty buzzed and mouthy to us. I asked her why she wandered off like that with all the crazy stuff going on in the world today - especially with someone she just met. In the end, she continued to ramble and argue that we were wrong and she was "only two buildings away from the hotel" and that the reason she didn't pick up the phone when I called was because she was "in the middle of a conversation".
We are not over-protective parents, but worry about her judgment. In the end, my wife and I decided she was being a creep - we cancelled the rest of our vacation and returned home. Now our daughter refuses to acknowledge that we had a right to be upset. No apologies, just anger towards us. I believe we made the right decision - what say you?