Let's set aside families that have real trauma and "negatvity" as Jesse calls it, like families with addictions and abuse. KC's life was mild compared to that.
Let's look at KC vs. Just Jayla:
KC: Drops out of school and mom blames the school. Mom chastises KC when no one is looking.
JJ: Skips school and mom calls the school every day for the rest of the year to make sure I showed up, even chased down me and 10 of my friends and hauled us back to school one day. JJ could not drop out if she wanted to (yuck, I hate third person self, but hafta do it here)
KC: Gets pregnant at 19 and is allowed to use mom as sitter.
JJ: Gets pregnant at 19 and mom says it's time to get a career and my own place. Mom tells me "Oh Hell No" when I bring up the idea of her as my sitter so I can go out. Had to get a real sitter so I could work.
KC: Quits job and bums off mom...THOUSANDS
JJ: :floorlaugh: A buck or two here or there or help with a bill? Okay...but thousands? Mom woulda :slap: me upside the head and told my whole family I was bummin so my aunts and dad and grandmother could :slap: me, too.
KC: Kills her daughter and CA covers for her.
JJ: Mom would have called the po po herself and TOLD THEM WHAT SHE KNEW TO BE TRUE, hauled me to the jail in the trunk I left my daughter to decompose in, :slap: me some more and maybe visited me in jail on holidays to :slap: me again.
I don't feel bad for this chick. I think CA was often too light on her and when CA did get fed up and shame her, it was a result of 1. Irritation due to a bum husband she could not get rid out without losing her rear and then 2. A daughter that piled on with dad and, did all of the above, and was completely unrepentant.
Now, the fact that CA also projects KC's failures on everyone else is where I begin to seriously dislike her. Yeah, she might have been hard on KC inside that house, but once that front door opened, it was everyone else's fault but KC's.
My mom's from Lowell, Mass. For those that have seen The Fighter, that's really how they roll. And thank God for it, I am successful, have a beautiful 14 year old and will follow all of mom's steps above if my daughter so much as steps a toe out of line. If my daughter did awful things or was a bum, and tried to make it out as if I caused her to be a psycho or a bum, she'd be on her own. I kinda took acception tonight with Jesse wondering about why CA was so irked over paying KC's hospital bills...he has to look at the big picture that the hospital bill was part and parcel of KC getting pregnant while unwed and uneducated, and not taking responsibility for herself in any way. Something tells me CA was getting sick of looking at her that night and was already aggitated about the two thieving bums she lived with.