A few years ago, the year I got pregnant with Nikos, I had a little girl in my class who I shall call "Jane." Jane came from a very interesting family. Her mom was only a couple years older than me, and had a number of kids, all of whom had different fathers (and different last names). Jane's older sister was an eighth grader, and was remembered by many of my coworkers as a particularly troubled girl. She had actually come back to our school and made threatening comments to me when I first started teaching there, because I had gotten one of her fifth-grade friends suspended (this was well before her sister was my student-- I didn't even know her name until that day). Anyhow, the year that Jane was in my class, her mom and mom's boyfriend came to Open House. The mom told me that she was pregnant again, and we proceeded to make small talk about it, having that in common. Later, it came out that she wasn't pregnant-- Jane's older (eighth grade) sister was. And she now has an almost two-year-old son, like me. And she should be a junior in high school.
Anyway, somebody mentioned Jane's family today, and a wave of terror washed over me. It's one thing to be the parents of a teenage boy who fathers a child; quite a different thing to be the parents of a girl. The thought of even having to broach this topic fills me with dread. I hope to God that my kids make better decisions than this. I know they already have an advantage, coming from a solid family. But even so, it freaks me out. In a serious way.
And on that note, someone needs to tell my baby to stop growing already. Because I know I won't be ready to deal with that!!
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