Broken homes often lead to shattered lives. It's always nice to hear about the stepfather who was a great influence on his stepchild(ren), but I've seen and heard rare cases of that. Growing up, I recall hearing about the abuse my cousins experienced at the hands of their stepfather. Not only did he make my aunt's son sleep in the bathtub, it was also believed that he slept with her teenage daughter. Today, my cousin leads a very tough life because of the abuse she experienced.
In my life I've heard a lot of disturbing stories about families and abuse. A girl I dated years ago was molested by her cousin. Another one was fondled by an uncle. In the fourth grade, I remember finding out that the girl I teased all the time was similarly victimized by her Grandfather. As a youth counselor, similar stories of sexual abuse were rampant. That was partly why I got out of that field. My skin wasn't thick enough to handle those very tough conversations with students I cared deeply about...
One afternoon I was driving my niece (12) and nephew (13) to camp and decided to have a conversation with her, in particular, about boys. She's going into the seventh grade, and he'll be in the eighth grade this Fall. Without realizing it, I opened a huge can of worms.
Me: Whatever you do, don't write notes to boys! They'll share it with their friends. I used to do it.
Niece: I know that. A girl at my school gave a note to a boy and he showed it to mad people.
Me: Okay. So you already know...
Niece: Yeh. I couldn't believe she'd write to some boy talkin about getting molested!
Nephew: That's nothing! This girl at school told me that her stepfather once said, he'd do her in the butt so hard that she'd have an orgasm.
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