You know you've gotten out of control when these things happen.
One, your partner's in your face about it.
Two, you're too concerned with the job that you can't focus on anything else.
Three…your kid gets arrested…
And tells you that she didn't call you or tell the officers who she was,
Because she knew they'd call you
And she was afraid of what you'd do.
It makes me wonder, yet again
Exactly what the hell kind of parent I am,
To get to the point where my own kid's afraid
That I'm going to flip out on her like I would on a suspect.
Or anyone else I come across.
Somehow the lines got blurred, and apparently,
My kids are now convinced that to me, they're just like everyone else.
But they're not.
They're different, because they're mine, and I do love them,
No matter what they seem to think, and it doesn't exactly help
When they tell me things like this, because all it does is make me doubt myself
And Kathy telling me that Kathleen is seventeen and can do her own thing…
Well, that doesn't help either.
She's right, though. Kathleen is seventeen, and can do whatever she will.
So long as she isn't breaking the law, that is.
And that's exactly what she's done, and I'm pushing the rules by making it go away.
Actually, I'm breaking them, but I won't think about that right now.
What I will think about is how she's drinking and she shouldn't be,
And how her mother doesn't seem to notice, even though she should.
Why is it that things always seem to change when I'm not around?
And why does it seem like I blink and they're into things like this?
Kathy told me once that they grow up while I'm at work,
And I didn't believe her.
That was five years ago.
And I'm only just starting to believe her.
Five years ago, she was the only one around to watch them growing up as it was.
And five years later, in this moment…she still is.
There's definitely something wrong with that.