MovieChat Forums > What Kind of Mother Are You? (1996) Discussion > It's about choices

It's about choices

posted 9 years ago by AmyJolamb
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I agree the mother in this movie has faults. She has a issues that need resolved but it is not the mothers fault her daughter makes bad choices.

As a mom of three teens I feel the mom made the best choice for one night in jail. I've heard that before. It puts a scare into the kid. It's a wake up call. Tough love. The child won't listen to the parent so let the child learn the result of disobedience in the real world. Behind bars.

Sadly this spun things out of control. I my self as a teen spent time in a place like Northside profiled in this movie. The place I was in was actually shut down less than a year after my release. It wasn't run properly and often left in hands of uneducated workers who had place keeping eyes on troubled teens.

But the place I was in did open my eyes and I believe it saved my life.

This teen grew out of control a long time before she broke the law. The mom herself had issues and ignored the warning signs but in the end this teen made a bad choice and felt the consequences.

[–] AmyJolamb 9 years ago

The reason I was in a place like the one shown in the movie was due to trying to kill myself. I was placed with teens male and female who were in due to drugs, car theft, running away and one girl was victim of gang rape. To this day I wonder why we were all thrown together. As awful as the experience was we did support and help each other. We were each in units in groups of 14 male & female.

The rooms were nicer than those in this movie. They had their own private bathroom which wasn't too bad. The room looked like a hotel room except no tv or radio. Those were forbidden.

As I said more than 21yrs after my time in this place I still view it as something that saved my life. I was in twice because my first release had me try to end my life again. I'm very happy and mentally healthy now living a full life.

I do want to add there were some bad places like this because one girl in my unit was sent to one after we spent time together at the one I was in. I reunited with her on Facebook. She spent almost a year in that one. It was very violent, lack of staff and even some staff abused the teens. She too is now very happy and living a full busy life.

From my own research the company that opened the place I was in owned a chain of "teen" centers and that chain has been shut down. It was not ran by the state but a company. I won't say the name of the chain due to privacy issues on my end.