The aftermath

A lot of folks have been waiting to hear about T2. I'll give you the general gist of things but, naturally, certain details need to remain unsaid for obvious reasons.

T2 was all about a shift in the status quo of TC. In the last year, a lot of turmoil has been swirling around her like a hurricane wind with the same speed and destructive force of one of nature's most devastating weapons. For TC, that hurricane has been her life and those in it. Parents, family, friends, school, growing up, hormones, everything. It has been a walking maelstrom and it needed to stop BUT as in the natural physics of our life, it is dangerous to stop something moving so quickly so suddenly. Sometimes we have no choice, sometimes we have to make the right choices. I am not sure that DW and I made all the right choices but they were all done with the mindset to protect the child whilst attaining the ultimate goal of changing her path and pulling her out of the storm.

This all started last November when she left those awful, selfish people called her maternal grandparents. People I would not waste drawing up saliva to spit upon as they are so beneath my contempt for them that the effort would be wasted. The problem is that physical location is only part of the equation. While removing her from that situation is a first good step, removing them from being rooted in her mind is a whole other step. Add to that the gift that keeps on giving known as my ex-wife and you have a wonderful mix of nasty concrete that has to be chipped away without cracking the foundation.

So, in a nutshell, after discovering that TC was venturing off to places on the Net she should not have, and seeing wording not befitting a fine young lady, we decided to gift her a long length of rope to see, at first, just what she was up to but to ultimately try to get an understanding of what she was feeling and her mindset; we got a lot more than what we bargained for. Without divulging anything that could embarrass her more than what she foolishly posted online in her various posts and web pages, suffice it to say that she has a VERY healthy imagination that she keeps amazingly separate from her real life. How she keeps track of it all is beyond me because I have trouble following it all and I read comics!! This is neither comic, nor funny though, and borders on tragic and worrisome.

Once we gathered enough information, but after she finished her exams at school and passed all her courses (yea!), we decided to drop the hatchet. This has been in planning since March and the date kept getting pushed for various reasons. On Friday, we brought the house of cards down and she was in a bit of shock and then a touch of spindoctoring but we had gathered so much information, she really was got in a round room without a corner to hide in. She knew we knew everything and we explained that she had an addiction to the Net as much as someone does to crack or Meth or alcohol. The fact that it has taken her over so much (i.e. she cannot see an online terminal and NOT go online to chat or update web pages be it at friends and families' homes or at the local computer store), was proof to her addiction. The fact that even while I am yelling at her to hurry up to go to school, she has to get those last typed lines in.

So, immediately one thinks we would remove the computer from her room, right? Wrong. We are not looking for a stop for now. We intend on making a change forever. So, we left her with the computer to see what she would do. As expected, she did not so much as flinch at getting slapped down WWE style and STILL hangs out online but this time trying to avoid chatting directly in MSN as she thinks that is the main source of our information (she is wrong). She also changes the information for her blog site thinking we would not be able to follow (she is wrong). We let her do all of this to full prove to her that she has a major problem that she is currently powerless to stop. We intend to stop it for her. So, as she studies hard at summer school today (Math 10), she is onblivous to the fact that everything will be changing today. There is still some more Trini to be dished out and she should never be complacent in this household again.

Now, change is never in a bubble, so DW and I know it will be hard for us too because we have to keep up our end and do some things differently and to be diligent where she is concerned. We are fully committed to this so no matter what it takes, we will succeed in our goal. As we move forward in our goal of expanding our little family, we still have to take care of the existing one. It won't be an easy road but there are no other ones to take. One day, we hope, she can look back on this and smile knowing we did what was best for her.

In the meantime, bring da noise, bring da pain. :)

Ciao.