I recently talked to a friend who used to write a lot. She has a lot to her past. It's understandable that she'd want to write, venting her feelings to the page, without prejudice. We'd volunteered together at the hospital and became pretty close. But after high school and college began to get in the way, and her unable to volunteer anymore, we both didn't see each other for a long time.
We found out about a month ago we go to the same college, and upon meeting again it felt like I'd seen her just yesterday. We spent the next hour or two catching up. It was really nice.
We bumped into each other today, and we sat and talked about life over lunch between classes. I mentioned how I was still writing my stories, and to my surprise she informed me that she had stopped writing in her journals. The girl who wrote so much, and poured her heart out over how much she felt, just...stopped. It broke my heart. And her reasoning behind it? Because her mother liked to snoop through her writings.
I'm not a parent myself, therefore this is pure conjecture and my uninformed opinion. I understand that parenting is difficult, and that no one is perfect. However, when you encroach on your child's privacy like that? That's just ridiculous.
She described how her father would go through her search history, how her mother would make copies of her journals, her personal writing meant for no one to read, to take to a specialist as if she was mentally unstable or ill, when she's one of the most amazing people I know. She doesn't need a therapist. She doesn't need you prying. Let her do what she loves instead.
To parent in a way that drives someone who loves to write to just...stop? Don't you think that's taking it to an extreme? Can't people see that taking that away is only making things worse? If someone told me I couldn't write anymore, I'd probably go insane. Writing is what keeps me sane, and healthy, because it doesn't matter how dark or depressing or outwardly weird my writing is online. None of that really matters at all, because my thoughts and my actions are two different things, and if I'm not out there committing murder or robbing banks. My thoughts are private, and everyone should respect that. Even parents.
Your child is not insane or dangerous just because they write dark or strange literature. If that was the case, there would be a pandemic of physcopaths living on this planet. You can't be happy all the time, and writing those low points down is a way to cope. So enough of the therapists and specialists because they aren't helping.
I can imagine that when children are put under such restrictive rules, in which your parents go through your stuff, no matter if you bought it with the money you earned or not, they'd feel pretty much stripped of their privacy, their identity, their personality. As if everything's up on display. A person is not a showpiece, to be examined and judged. We are not the artwork, the exhibit, the monkey in the cage. We are the painters, the crafters, the builders, the architects.
Let them create, quit restricting their capabilities all because you have trust issues or something, and for God's sake, allow your child the freedom to pursue whatever makes them happy because without that happiness what kind of a life are they living?
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