alcoholism
... longed for. She would have to wait until he was in a good mood or sober, which was not very often, to try to have any sort of conversation with him. His idea of communication was being drunk and yelling at my cousin. Unfortunately, she was only neglected by her father, but it so happened that her mother rarely had time for her either. Since the majority of my uncle’s free time was taken up by drinking, my aunt with more responsibilities and chores, which limited her time for my cousin as well. In other words, She feels her father’s alcoholism caused her mother to be a workaholic, leaving her without the attention she needed as she was growing up. As a result of the neglect, she chose other avenues for attention. She would always get in trouble with her teachers and found the principal’s office a familiar place. She found out by being a rebellious and destructive student she would receive the proper attention she needed, the attention that he did not receive from her parents. I remember one time when I was in the fifth grade, my cousin got in a fight with a fellow classmate. Our teacher had her suspended for three days from school. The fight was over one of those #2 pencils. Our classmate walked up to our table and took her pencil without her permission, so she confronted him and asked for it back. When he refused and told her to shut up, she punched him in the face as hard as she could, knocking him to the floor. While he was falling, the pencil was still in his hand, and it caused him to be severely injured with a stab would. Due to the incident our teacher scheduled an appointment with her parents. The teacher informed her parents that she was a trouble maker and should be suspended. Also, she said, the principal of the school would not tolerate this type of behavior and recommended her to be enrolled in a metal institute. Anther avenue she sought for attention was by getting involved with sone trouble makers from her neighborhood. When she was around her friends, she was not ignored or disregarded, as she was with her parents. When she was in the eighth grade, her friends would break into neighborhood cars and steal whatever they could get on their hands on. Also, they would shoplift from stores on an everyday basis. Sometimes they would even go out and break house windows, car windows, and scratch up cars with their switch blades just for fun. On occasion the police would have to bring her home after one of many altercations with the police department. Her parents would not be happy and would disapprove of her actions, but that did not stop her from doing whatever she wanted. In actuality, it seemed to her as if the only times her parents noticed her or tool time out for her was when she was in trouble, so that encouraged her to continue her destructive behavior. One time we both got arrested for one felony charge of burglary, conspiracy, and possession of stolen property. We were only sixteen and we cut class in the morning to go break into a house. We broke in though the back window, and we stole a VCR, some jewelry, and some cash. Then we proceeded to the car and began to stash the stolen loot into the truck of her car when a curious neighbor ran out of her house of her house with a phone in her hand. She called the police and informed them of the burglary she just witnessed. After we fled the scene, three police called pulled us over. They drew out their guns and tod us to take the keys out of the ignition and throw them out into the street. Then the police officers searched the vehicle, found the stolen goods, and read us our Miranda rights. As a result, I was sentenced to 3 months in juvenile hall and she received 2 years probation. Personally, I feel that if she had received proper attention at home, peer pressure could have been avoided. But since her friends gave the sense of belonging that she did not receive at home, she was vulnerable and continued her behavior even if it got her in trouble with the law. My uncle’s alcohol problem not only affected my co...