February Prompt
What is the worst thing a parent can do to their child?
Everybody always gets so hung up on what parents could do for and to their kids that they don’t stop to think that maybe just maybe it’s what they haven’t done that matters the most.
An abusive father could stop drinking, a neglectful mother could spend more time at home and a drug addicted relative could stop using, but here’s the thing: they don’t. They just keep doing all those bad things that echo through the generations until their sons and their daughters are imitating, further perpetuating the cycle.
Parker’s parents could have done a lot of things for her, but they didn’t. Very much your regular sob story: kids having kids, booze, no money, neglect, bitterness and a whole host of other things that landed her in care at a relatively young age.
Young enough to be “saved” but old enough to be too far gone, not that the authorities knew that.
Things are supposed to get better after the social services swoop in to save the day, but nothing is ever simple and foster care? Is far from simple. Countless faces, all desperate to be parents. It’s ironic really, considering the people having babies don’t want them. Babies ruin lives, least that’s what Parker was always told.
“God, I hate you.”
“My life was so much better before you.”
“Why’d you have to live?”
"Why aren't you normal?"
There are a lot of things parents could do and for their kids, but Parker thinks not doing anything at all and not being there is probably the worst thing a parent could do.
She’s pretty sure that’s not what being a good parent is about, but she doesn’t really know, especially as she’s only ever known her own and then the masses of pretend families in foster care.
So, yeah, it’s not about what they could do, but more what they don’t do. That’s what hurts the most.
Muse: Parker
Fandom: Leverage
Word Count: 319
Everybody always gets so hung up on what parents could do for and to their kids that they don’t stop to think that maybe just maybe it’s what they haven’t done that matters the most.
An abusive father could stop drinking, a neglectful mother could spend more time at home and a drug addicted relative could stop using, but here’s the thing: they don’t. They just keep doing all those bad things that echo through the generations until their sons and their daughters are imitating, further perpetuating the cycle.
Parker’s parents could have done a lot of things for her, but they didn’t. Very much your regular sob story: kids having kids, booze, no money, neglect, bitterness and a whole host of other things that landed her in care at a relatively young age.
Young enough to be “saved” but old enough to be too far gone, not that the authorities knew that.
Things are supposed to get better after the social services swoop in to save the day, but nothing is ever simple and foster care? Is far from simple. Countless faces, all desperate to be parents. It’s ironic really, considering the people having babies don’t want them. Babies ruin lives, least that’s what Parker was always told.
“God, I hate you.”
“My life was so much better before you.”
“Why’d you have to live?”
"Why aren't you normal?"
There are a lot of things parents could do and for their kids, but Parker thinks not doing anything at all and not being there is probably the worst thing a parent could do.
She’s pretty sure that’s not what being a good parent is about, but she doesn’t really know, especially as she’s only ever known her own and then the masses of pretend families in foster care.
So, yeah, it’s not about what they could do, but more what they don’t do. That’s what hurts the most.
Muse: Parker
Fandom: Leverage
Word Count: 319