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Aug. 26, 2005 Hello! Eighteen is the year that we send our children away to college. They pack their bags, we drive them to a party town (every college town is a party town because young people party! Fact of life; get used to it). Parents trust that their children will show good judgement(something eighteen year olds are not yet physiologically equipped to do) and we trust that they will study and avoid danger. But loving parents know that teens will make mistakes and will sometimes find themselves in a less than optimal situation, and a loving parent allows the child to grow through experience. This is called "growing up," and it's something every human creature (and their mother) has the right to believe they will live through. Beth Twitty used proper judgement in allowing Natalee Holloway to go to Aruba with her friends. Natalee was only a step away from independence, and she would soon be on a college campus without direct supervision. Twitty had to, like every loving parent, learn to let go and trust her child, and to trust God to see that child home safely. Beth was no more lenient or permissive than any other parent of a successful, high-achieving, trustworthy teenager. Those of you who would like to blame Beth remind me of the dogma of the past that blamed the mother for any problem, including mental illness. It is time to let that mysigonistic idea go. Whatever happened to Natalee in Aruba could have happened anywhere--even on the University of Alabama campus. Even at the local grocery store. It is not a safe world. Mothers know this; it's what keeps us awake at night. But hovering and overprotecting and over-mothering will only create invalids who are unable to exist in the world. It is our job, as loving mothers, to let our children learn and experience. Beth had no way of knowing that her child, out of the hundred of students who went on that trip, would not return. My heart goes out to the Holloways, and I would gladly put on tennis shoes and help in the search if I was allowed. Criticizing or blaming is not productive, nor does it bring us any closer to the truth. Joran should stay in prison until he or his father or the other boys tell the truth and put an end to Beth's misery. It is unbelievable that this tragic tale has extended as long as it has; that a mother who is out of her mind with worry has to fight the Aruban authorities and investigate herself. I wish Beth and Natalee godspeed, and I pray every day that they find this child and give her back to her mother. God bless you, Beth. ------------ Email Rebeez: rebeez@cox.net Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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