Above all, I love my daughter
Above all - I love my daughter. And, to me, there is no cause worth her life.
Jordan Petersen speaks about young people creating wars when none exist. Some kids join the circus, the merchant navy, or Médecins Sans Frontières, or a touring rock band. They might marry young and badly, join a priesthood, become a Scientologist, join a commune. Or, as in my daughter’s case, embrace gender ideology. Gender is our children’s generation’s war, it seems. In this sense, our pain and sadness is perhaps similar to mothers of previous generations, whose children have gone off to fight in a distant war.
Some kids, away at the war of their own creation, get hooked on drugs, booze. Some of them don't come back home. Some return, damaged, wiser, enriched or all of these things.
My daughter has gone off to fight in her war. There are times my brain switches off and I forget that’s she’s gone, that she’s left our family.
Her war is a foolish, pointless war, in my view. But aren’t they all, from a parent’s perspective? Individuals, institutions, and governments speak of transgenderism as a human rights concern, thus worthy of fighting for, while I steam about the damage I see it causing to humanity on so many levels, physical and psychological. They think my daughter’s war is worthy of her sacrifice. I do not.
When children go to war, life doesn’t stop for the rest of us. It never does. There was a period of a couple of years when I didn't know what to do with myself except to cry. My marriage suffered, my other child suffered, I had self-destructive thoughts. None of this brought my daughter back.
In times of war, when our children leave, communities often band together for support. That’s my focus now. Parents are all stronger together and I am grateful to everyone, including Genspect, who has held hands together with me. We are on the home front, waiting and hoping for our children to come back to us.
I know that all generations need a war, a cause, to set themselves apart. I hope I’ll be one of the lucky ones whose child comes home from the far away fields of battle, scarred, but stronger for the fight.
This is so beautifully written. Such wisdom. Yes, this younger generation is indeed fighting a war on gender and there will be many casualties, many wounded, and many will not return home. I married young at 21 only to get divorced less than 2 years later. I dropped LSD, ate psychedelic mushrooms, smoked pot, smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol, did not wear a bra for years, had multiple sex partners - I was a wanna-be-hippy and could care less about the government, hated cops, and supported “sex-drugs-and rock n roll” In high school when the Viet Nam war ended I went to a “No More War” party on a school night with my parents permission and we smoked pot and drank beer. Now I am in my mid-sixties and looking back at what MY younger generation believed in and fought for seems minuscule compared to this younger generation’s war on gender identity - what they do not realize is that this war is a physical, mental and emotional war on their own bodies. How will this younger generation survive this war without our help? I am educating myself every day, spreading the word and praying. I cried myself to sleep last night so worried about a young relative who is caught up in the crossfires of this gender war. I worry about my 2 year old granddaughter’s future. This gender war must become ALL of our fight as these children cannot do this alone, they cannot possibly understand how their decisions now will follow them the rest of their lives. Heartbreaking.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this pointless war our daughters fight. They seem to be at war with themselves. We suffer too and as in previous generations mothers support each other in grief.