Tina's Daily Blog: Yet MORE Lies

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Yet MORE Lies

We had another lying episode with Kayla today. Sigh.....

Because of her D on her progress report and D on her report card, she has been on phone restriction - not allowed to make or receive phone calls.

On a somewhat regular basis I will find a cordless house phone in her bedroom but have been unable to 'prove' that she has made calls, so I've let it go. When I've asked her in the past, she has given excuses as to why the phones are in there.

On Friday, I noticed a cell phone in her bedroom. I asked her about it and she said someone had let her borrow it in school on Friday and she forgot to return it. She was going to return it to him on Monday. I might point out here that the phone was on a charger in her room.

I performed in our Toast of Tampa annual show on Saturday and when we got home (about 1:30 am) I noticed we had missed a call - at 1:00 AM. Sunday I called this person back (someone the kids call 'Yo-yo') to ask why in the hell anyone would call our house this late, and the person said that they were returning KAYLA'S call. I confront her about this, and you can probably guess what she said... Yo yo was lying. Okay. I don't believe her one bit. This has happened on multiple occasions... people call for Kayla and when I answer the phone, I say 'she is on phone restriction and can't come to the phone' they say... well, I was returning her call! I'd guess that this has happened at least 7 or 8 times that I know of. As it was today, when Kayla was asked about it on these other occasions, Kayla claims the other person is lying.

Then I go into her room this afternoon and find the cell phone again. I check the dialed calls - and there are probably 21 or so calls logged since Friday afternoon. That's just the outgoing calls. I ask her about it and she - DENIES it. Come on... it's a CELL PHONE LOG... how can you deny it? I ask her if the guy who let her use the phone told her it was okay for her to make calls on it and she said "yes, he has unlimited nights and weekends." Well... first of all, she's on phone restriction, so regardless of what the guy said, it was NOT okay. So... I call the guy who owns the phone (on his mom's cell phone - it's a stored number in the cell phone). I ask if he has unlimited minutes, he says NO. I'm furious with Kayla at this point.

We won't even talk about the received calls... apparently all her friends knew she had a phone for the weekend and just called her all the time. Fricking great.

Then I play around with the phone some more and see that she has also been text messaging like CRAZY using the phone. She's not only text messaging, she's also been sending photos to friends and email addresses. She's been one busy girl totally ignoring her restriction.

I again call the mom's cell phone only this time I get the mom. I explain to her that Kayla has had the phone and ask if she has a text messaging plan on his cell phone, she tells me NO. Holy CRAP. With the photos taken and such... we are talking about possible big bucks.

The mom is furious. She then tells me that SHE CALLED Kayla on Friday afternoon... handed her son the phone.... and watched him as he told her (per the mom's instructions and in front of the mom) to TURN OFF THE PHONE so that it was not used at all on the weekend and just return it to him on Monday, unused. Okay... I'm beyond furious at this point. Guess what Kayla says... the mom is lying... it never happened.

The mom also questions now as to if Kayla 'accidentally' kept the phone, or if she took it with malicious intent... that she kept it knowing she wanted to use it over the weekend. Although I would love nothing better than to try to believe it was an accident, I honestly believe she took it knowing she was going to use it.

I then find out after questioning others in the house that Kayla went to a neighbors house a street away to borrow a charger so that she could charge and use the cell phone all weekend. I also find out that Kayla has bought things online using the cell phone (which will show up on their monthly bill when it comes in). Way way beyond furious, I call Kayla down again. She admits to buying one ring-tone, which I seriously doubt is the extent of all she did. I can feel my blood pressure boiling and the money just flying out of my bank in order to pay all this back.

Throughout this ordeal all afternoon, Chris and I yell at Kayla - in particular as we found out about everything in segments. Chris at one point was yelling at her telling her "Do you know who is responsible for all your actions? All your mistakes? The bill you run up? Your poor judgement?" Kayla tries to say that she is responsible, and Chris immediately points out to her that her Auntie Tina, as her legal guardian, is completely responsible for everything. This of course shakes Kayla up. At one point Chris was telling her that he could almost picture Ron (her daddy) sitting up in heaven, head down in shame, shaking his head back in forth in a 'no' manner and saying "Kayla, Kayla, Kayla... didn't I teach you any better than that?" With this Kayla completely lost it and began crying terribly.

We talked about how scared we were that Kayla exhibited absolutely NO impulse control what-so-ever. She just doesn't 'get it'. Chris and I also explained about "bad intent"... about how if you do something without knowing it was wrong, it's still wrong although better than doing something that you know is wrong and choosing to just do it anyways.

Kayla took the phone, knowing she was on phone restriction. She used the phone at school - rule-breaker #1. She kept the phone - rule breaker #2. When the mom called and asked her to turn it off for the weekend, she ignored the mom - rule breaker #3. She instead borrowed a cell phone charger from a neighbor to keep it going so she could continue to make calls - rule breaker #4. She made multiple phone calls over the weekend - rule breaker #5. She received multiple phone calls - rule breaker #6. She sent and received multiple text messages - rule breaker #7. She downloaded ring-tones and God only knows what else to the expense of the mom's cell phone bill - rule breaker #8. She lied to me about every single one of these.

I did call Julie today who told me that she honestly felt that Kayla would never get any better unless she was locked up in Juvie for a while. Julie explained how she had to go through that. I kinda laughed at that notion, because, although Julie was locked up in Juvie many times -- it did not affect her actions one single bit. As a matter of fact, from my recollection - she just continued to get worse with no regards to anyone around her or her own consequences.

I don't know what to do with her. I hid in my bedroom for about 2 hours after all of this - trying to think through everything. Came downstairs, made dinner - but asked everyone to eat on their own as I didn't want to sit at the table and chit-chat like a normal night. I'm in too much of a funk for that honestly.

Finally all the kids are in bed (or getting there, I need to go up and check on them). I thought I'd take a moment to blog about it... see if I feel any better.

I don't.

Please lift us up in prayer... we could use it tonight and in the days to come as the story continues to unfold.

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In A Nutshell:

Here is a letter I sent to Dr. Phil which really sums everything up:
I am married to my high-school sweetheart (20 years this August), with two wonderful children (Amanda who is 20 and Jonathan who is 13). I have two sisters, both younger – I call them “my good sister” and “my bad sister”. My good sister is – well, good! Normal in every way. The bad one, Julie, has been in trouble since she was a kid. As a baby she cried all of the time. As a teenager she was in trouble all of the time. At the age of 14 or so I remember that she had run away from home to live with a grown man in Atlanta. This was one of many run a ways. As a teenager, she provided sexual favors to boys in school, as well as teachers. As a young adult she was arrested for prostitution. She’s done drugs ranging from marijuana to crack. She was diagnosed early on as bi-polar with personality disorder. She’s also a serious cutter to the point where she no longer hid the cuts. She’s cut things like “Ronald Cecchinni” into her arm… and “Fuck you Dr. XXX” on her stomach, in large letters. Julie is also a diagnosed sex-addict. She’s also recently (in the past year) begun ‘huffing’. (I honestly believe that this huffing has caused some permanent damage) She is currently 36yo.
Julie lost her husband Ron a year and a half ago as a result of Leukemia and Kidney Disease which the military attributed to his serving in the Gulf War. He left behind three children – Kayla who is now 15, Justin who is now 14 and Kayte who is now 13. Even when Julie was married, her psychiatric problems persisted. She has been hospitalized literally hundreds of times over the years. However, when her husband was alive, he would take care of the kids when Julie was mentally out of control. After Ron died, Julie lost control of the kids and her life. She began to spiral out of control, having pot parties at her home (to the point where the kids said a door would open and a cloud of smoke would come bellowing out of the room), smoking weed with her own kids, having sex all over the house with different men all the time, allowing young men (19 yo) to sleep over with her oldest daughter (only 14 at the time), and allowing Gang members to live in her home (she said she felt ‘safe’ with them there). In addition, she was attempting suicide daily, overdosing on medications hoping to not wake up the next morning. Mind you all of this while she was seeing her Psychologist every week and Psychiatrist once a month. Both of these Doctors knew what was going on at home, neither of them reported it to the proper authorities. I have even been told by one of them that he was told, by Julie, that she ‘heard voices telling her to hurt the children’ but that she was proud that she could ignore the voices. Still, these Doctors reported nothing.
I should add here that it was at some point in this period of time in Julie’s life when her children began suicide watches over their mom… each one taking turns to sit in a room with her at all hours (night and day) because their mom was less-likely to hurt herself while they were here. However, it didn’t always work – Julie constantly took pills in front of them trying to either dope herself up or overdose, and she would even cut herself in front of the kids.
Finally one day, she woke up furious that her last suicide attempt didn’t work. She got violent with her oldest daughter, police were called, and finally DCF was called. (I would like to add that we (other family members) had called DCF in the past to report things, but some of the cases were ‘unfounded’ and one other time the fled the state knowing CF only had jurisdiction in Florida.) DCF removed the children from the home in November 2005 and I gained custody of the Children shortly thereafter.
There are lots of things I could add here about my sister, DCF, and the horrible Foster Care or Custodial Care program we are involved with. However, that is not my main reason for writing to you.
Kayte, the youngest, seems to be adjusting pretty well. She has a tendency to trivialize what her mom has done and the seriousness of it, but I think that is normal given that it is her mom. Kayte was in counseling, but she feels it’s ‘a waste of time’.
Justin, the middle child, is okay. As a young boy I'm told he was a terror. He used to hit his mother and at one point (only 6yo) tried to jump off a building to kill himself. Since then, his anger has turned in to an endless smothering of love and caring. He does everything for his mom… from getting her whatever she needs to rubbing her feet and back. Justin has seen a psychiatrist since moving in with me who felt that his issues were brought on by trauma. It was also at that visit with the psychiatrist that he confided in myself and the Doctor that he had suicidal thoughts often while living at home with his mom in her ‘state of being’ after his dad died. However, since he moved in with me he has done so much better (and continues to improve daily) that she didn’t feel he even needed counseling at this time. He would, however, need counseling before he was reunited with his mom.
Kayla, the oldest, has serious issues. She is also currently in counseling but feels that it is ‘a waste of time’. Kayla has always lied and stolen things. Family members feel sorry for her because you can tell that she doesn’t really mean any ill will by it, but it’s been ‘the way she is’ for a very long time. By far her biggest problems are lying and her need for approval by men (young and old).
Since the kids have moved in with us, my husband and I have set up rules. The kids already had myspace accounts, so we set ground rules for it. 1) We needed the login names and passwords. 2) Profiles must be set to private. 3) The only people they were allowed to have on their friends list was people that they actually knew. When Kayla’s list climbed over 300, and she was found to have inappropriate conversations (wanting to sneak out and ‘hook up’ with young men), we made everyone cut their list down to 30 friends, which included myself. 4) All vulgar language and inappropriate photos would come off immediately and would be monitored by myself at any given time. At times, they try to put up ‘sexy’ pictures which immediately need to come down.
However recently I have found that she has multiple website things going on in an attempt to pick up young men. I'll outline a few here so that you understand the gravity of the situation: 1) I found her 'normal' myspace account set to 'public view'. She has over 11,000 profile views(meaning people looking at her pictures and wanting to know more about her). I had reset it to private many times, but she keeps going back and resetting it to public. 2) I have found another myspace account which she went by the name 'Shannon' and used it to pick up young men, tease them, then later tell them that she was 'taken' but refer them to her 'cousin, Kayla'. She'd then give them all of Kayla's information. Of course thiswas also set to public. 3) I have found another social network website that was like myspace in which she had ONLY men (mostly from other states) as her 'friends' whom she corresponded with. The emails back and forth basically said the same thing as all of the others... more on that in #4 - only these were guys that not only did she not know, but they were not even in the area! 4) All accounts that I have found had basically the same thing... her emailing guys wanting to know if she was pretty, if they wanted to 'hook up', talking about going to their 'crib' or meeting up with them somewhere, and constantly seeking approval and affirmation from these guys.
I believe she gets this from her mom. And the sad thing is, if you met her, you would love her. She is truly a GREAT kid… but she has serious issues. I’ve described to you Julie’s behavior and Kayla’s seems to be the same way. Neither can make decisions on their own that are ‘the right thing to do’, and both lack the understanding of simple values, morals and ethics. I could go into so many examples. How do I describe the utterly amazing difference between Julie’s parenting style and my own?
I know... Both Julie and I have myspace accounts set up to ‘monitor’ the kids. To illustrate the difference between Julie and myself, here is something that Julie and I both put on our myspace accounts. You are supposed to put something 'about yourself' by your picture. Here is mine: "I'm 38 years old. I have two amazing kids, Amanda who is 20 and Jonathan who is 13. I have great husband, Chris. I love to sing - and have been singing in Toast of Tampa Show Chorus for 10 years. I'm raising my nieces and nephew (12, 13 and 14). I love God and my family."And here is Julie's: "I am who I am and if you dont like me for me........FUCK YOU........ Plus if you dont like me for me....... Im gunna tell my kids and there gunna kick yer ass!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Here’s the other dilemma we are having; the two girls are in counseling that is costing me $25 EACH in co-payments every time they go. The State of Florida provides NO financial support to me as a relative caregiver, other than providing the three kids with Medicaid. They received small SSI checks because of their dad’s death, but it barely covers the food they consume. The DCF worker, having spoke with the girls and being told that therapy is ‘a waste of time’, has referred me to a clinic that DCF uses for cases such as this to seek mental care for Kayla (aswell as the others). However, the kids have TriCare as their primary insurance because their dad died from Military causes. TriCare requires the co-payment, regardless of the Medicaid secondary. Having said that, please understand that I worked in referrals in a primary care physician’s office for 16 years… I totally ‘get’ what is required for primary and secondary insurances and all the red tape. But because of the uniqueness of this situation, the kids are suffering!
I should also point out here that I have the kids for an indefinite period of time. Right now Julie is doing things that she has been told to do to get the kids back. However, she is still awaiting a court ordered detailed Psychiatric exam to determine if she can EVER parent again. Even if that Psychiatrist feels she can parent again, she’ll most likely need to be ‘clean’ and ‘episode-free’ for 6 months to a year minimum. In addition, Julie is only allowed supervised visits and one phone call a day. This came about because of her inappropriate behavior when she was with the kids and because when she was allowed to call any time she’d call 10 + times a day.
The other problem with Julie ever getting her children back is that… she doesn’t understand what she did wrong. She parents as if she were 15-years old herself. If anyone has ever done something bad and been able to ‘keep’ their kids, she sees no reason she can’t do it. She brought her daughter at the age of 13 in for a HUGE tattoo on the small of her back. It’s Tigger flipping ‘the bird’ with her gang name under it. She was also planning on getting a large tattoo on her 12yo before the kids were taken. Again, she sees nothing wrong with any of her past behavior.
So, you see, I could have these children for the rest of their teenage years. I honestly don’t know where to turn to get them the help they need.
I feel as if I am in a psychiatric nightmare and I just can’t wake up. Eight months ago I was at home, my biggest ‘kid worry’ was if my son was going to get good grades on his report card. Now I find myself in a crux worried about whether or not the lessons I teach them, this late in their young life, are going to be enough to turn these kids around and help them to be productive adults in the near future.

Tina's Daily Blog

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Yet MORE Lies

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