Diagnosis: pants on fire

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!
Scottish Saying

and can I just add... from histrionic, hormonal, spineless, drama mamas!

In pediatrics, we're trained to believe children - and it serves us- and them- very well.

In a truth smack-down, give me a child's spontaneous utterance over an adults calculated lie any day!

But then there's adolescence...
and they're crossing the quicksand, having one foot in adulthood.

You still want to believe them, but you're never sure who you're dealing with...
which is why 5 professionals lost 5+ hours of our lives yesterday...
time which will never be recovered.

When a teenage girl stands by and lets another girl tell a school principal that she was raped by her stepfather, action will be taken.

To ignore that information places the principal, the school and all child protection agencies at risk of ignoring serious harm to a child.
And when the alleged victim is pregnant, it further ups the ante.

So when the alleged victims mother comes in to the ER pretty pissed off and indignant, we're tempted to write her off as being in denial and unwilling to protect her child.

But there was this niggling 'something' that rang true about what she was saying...
yes, there was domestic violence between the parents;
yes, father (not stepfather as previously claimed) is an alcoholic and a less than ideal partner and parent and yes, none of them are going to win any "Citizen of the Year" awards...
but those "yeses" don't necessarily add up to 'rape'.

So, when the 'victim' recants hours later, is it finally the truth?
Or just her way of trying to have the whole thing be over?

And when she then spins a story about the other girl making the allegation because SHE (the 'whistle-blower") had been raped by a 40 yr old guy in a motel is THAT the truth or just more adolescent bullshit?

And how does a whole segment of our society get so screwed up that drama and lies are the only way they know to exist and function?


I'm sorry; if you're old enough to get pregnant and go to your high school Prom as a soon to be mama, you're old enough to understand that actions and words have consequences.

I think they should both be charged with making a false police report...
or would THAT just add to the drama which they clearly feed off of?

It was a LONG, murky way to start the week!!