Open Letter | Teen Ink

Open Letter

November 27, 2017
By Anonymous

Dear biological parents of Meg,

Everyday children all over the world are not taken care of by their parents the way they should be. Children are neglected or in some cases abused. And it can all start with one thing---drugs.

As a parent, you have one job. To protect your child at all costs. And if you are taking illegal drugs, your child is not safe. They will likely grow up in an unsafe/unhealthy environment, where they have been taught it is okay to do drugs.

Listen to me when I say this. Drugs does not just affect one person. It does not just affect you. It affects so many people who are trying to clean up the mess you made.

Currently, your daughter is staying with her foster parents, my aunt and uncle, because you could not pull yourself together to take care of her yourself. One of you is a drug addict, while the other is serving time in jail. If it weren't for alarmed police, your daughter, Meg, would currently be in a dangerous place.

And, I know that you might not care. But I do.

One of the worst things about this situation is that Meg is not alone in the fact that her parents do drugs. According to Jeffrey Sterling MD, 16% percent of parents do drugs, and as of March, 2005, and a CASA report showed that 13% of children under 18 years old live in a house where the adult does drugs. And the research done at ASEP in 1996 shows that 2.1 million children lived with an adult abusing drugs. Think about that. If that was about 22 years ago, think of how high that number has raised since then.

So, I am asking you one simple thing. Only one thing you need to do.  It’s really not that confusing. Change. Do not keep living your life this way. Make living easier for at least one person. You may never be trusted with your daughter again, but you can try. Try to change the life of your daughter in the best way. Be remembered as the person who turned their life around. Who turned a bad situation into something good. Who became a great people instead of struggling people. 

Be the people who changed.

         Sincerely,
a loving cousin of your daughter


The author's comments:

My aunt and uncle are fostering a baby who has a young mother who is a drug addict, and a older father who is in jail.


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