Dear Mordor & Co.
Tommy + Angela Harris thought so and it led to tragedy.
It can be so easy as parents to put their own aspirations before their children's feelings. i.e. they push their children into career moves which may be of the parent's choice and not that of their young adolescent. Here is a brief background ...
Angela + Tommy had to get married because Angie was expecting Katy. The couple were very young and had to give up their hopes + dreams of going to University. Katy turned out to be very intelligent and was keeping on top of her schoolwork before the family had to leave their home town, changing their names etc.. They therefore had aspirations for Katy to get good GCSEs then A'levels, then go on to University, have a high-flying career, get married, grandchildren .... all in that order. Katy, however, felt under a lot of pressure, she missed schooling and failed her GCSEs and had to resit them. She also had diabetes and fell in love with the male nurse that was treating her - Martin Platt who was 20 years older than her. Although she was 16 at the start of the relationship she was still in year 11 and therefore a schoolgirl. Tommy was furious and gave her a hard time so she moved in with Martin and lived with him for nearly two years. Katy wanted to test Martin's commitment to her so she deliberately got pregnant. Although Martin was initially annoyed by this he decided that he wanted to marry Katy and got an engagement ring for her and booked a romantic holiday for them so that when they were in the Lake District he could propose to her. Sadly this did not happen because Martin enlisted the help of Sally to do this. He was so pleased with Sally that he embraced her. Tommy saw this and well ... you know the rest.
If Tommy had apologised to Katy and acknowledged her feelings instead of brushing them to one side and accusing her of making a silly fuss over nothing (her termination and relationship breakdown) then he would never have been killed and Katy would never have killed herself.
I apologise for the length of this story but do you feel that beyond the age of 16 (compulsory education) 16+ children should have a say in what they believe to be right for them or should parents still steer them down a path of their (the parent's choosing) and expect them to obey to the letter?
What do you think?
Yours truly
jstevens1