((((musketeer))))) Please heed the well chosen/caring advice above!

And......as to your daughter calling social services on you..........my experience with that is this.....

Those that NEED to call them and SHOULD call them at any expense (the truly abused child)....never threaten this notion (aloud) for real fear of retaliation from their abuser! Those who continually threaten to call "the authorities"....with little or no knowledge of what abuse actually is.....should be taken aside and shown case records of children who are truly abused. The horrors of child abuse are so seperate and dinstinctive from disipline.....there can be no mistake! That children today misuse the system against their parents is so reprehensible I could scream!

Every child knows this threat stikes up some emotion in their parent. How bout turning the tables? Tell her.....ok....call the authorities and we'll sit down and discuss the laws. The law says that as your parent I have to provide you with a home and clothing and schooling until you are 18 or graduate or quit at age of consent. So, I'll let you stay here and they won't have to take you away....but you can only use your bedroom for sleeping....with no TV....no phone.....no stereo.....no computer. You can use the bathroom and shower facilities for X amount of time per day! I'll feed you three meals per day.....no more, no less. I am also required to give you clothing......so you can now shop at "GoodWill" (second-hand stores) and forget those $200.00 shoes you NEED and will die if you can't have.....I'm only required to shoe you....not make you the most popular teen on earth......so you can wear these $12.00 sneakers I got at the five and dime! As to school.....you can stay where you are now or, as a newly embarrassed teen (said clothing and shoes) who is a self proclaimed abused teen, you can go to a school for troubled children who need 24/7 psychiatric attention. Your choice! But yes.....indeed.......let's call the authorities....and we'll establish rules and follow laws as they are set forth! Go get me the phone honey!

Hey! Just a thought!

__________________
Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~