I've been away from work for 3 weeks, and i admit it, i miss the teenagers. I really do. I also miss regularly being involved in conversations which stump me, and render me silent for a while, generally rending me quite for a week, until i come back at the next session and begin with, 'I've been thinking about what you said last week and.....'
Here are some of my most recent conversation dead-ends:
Kid A (16, a big MDMA drug user): 'I've decided not to drink on New Years because it affects the drugs i take and i don't like it'
Me: 'Brilliant. Not mixing substances is a great step forward, so its just the MDMA on new years!'
Kid A: 'erm, No. We've ordered MDMA, Ketamine and Acid.'
Me: .............
Kid C (13): 'I bought a knife to school today to stab Jade'
Me: 'If you say radical things like that i have to take them seriously, and i don't think you really are going to stab Jade, are you?'
Kid C: 'No. [thinks for a minute]. I'm going to stab my mum'
Me: ...............
Me: Today we are going to talk about contraception as I'm worried your going to get pregnant.'
Girl C (13): ' I'm not interested. I've got a 19 year old boyfriend and we are trying for a baby'.
Me:' well, the baby will wake you up all the time at night, dont you like sleeping?'
Girl C: 'It wont wake me up as i'll be awake gazing at it sleeping'
Me:...........
Mother: 'Tell me, at what age can i give up [parenting her kids]? 16? 18?'
Me: 'Well, some people would say you can never give up on your kids, you will always be their parent. They are your children for life'
Mother: [in all earnestness] 'Nobody told me this!'
Kid K (12): 'I like school, i get good grades and want to go to Harvard'
Me: 'Wow, thats going to be a tough thing to do. But aim high. What do you want to study at university?'
Kid K: ' singing or cooking'
and a great example from my colleague Spinsters session:
Kid A: ' Mum is always calling me names, and putting me down like calling me a prostitute etc'
Spinster: 'Mum is this true?'
Mum: 'well she did it first'.
Spinster: ............
2 comments:
Ahhhh yes. The conversations that end so quietly that you can hear crickets.
Latest from a few days ago:
Me to parent - "If you had to choose between your son respecting you and him cleaning the house, which would you prefer?"
Parent - "I'd prefer that he clean the house."
Me - *crickets* "That's really sad that you'd rather have a clean house that a son who respects you." *more crickets*
You know that one can't make this shit up. O______O I'll try to remember to share new stories with you every once in a while so that we can listen to crickets together.
O______O
Fantastic examples Ellie!
I miss working with you! xx
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