Only a parent of a difficult child could understand . . .

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
We had quite a scare the other night. husband noticed that he had a voice mail shortly before we went bed the other night. He listened and it was a message from a jail in a neighboring county and it said something about a service where we could accept collect calls from the jail.

The county was the same county where difficult child is living. So, of course, our first thought was that difficult child was in jail and trying to reach us. difficult child's phone bill was due that day and husband hadn't paid it yet so the phone was turned off (she has a prepaid month to month plan) so we couldn't reach difficult child to find out where she was and it was too late to call the halfway house. husband paid her bill online but it takes a while for the phone to be activated again.

So what's a difficult child's parent to do? We went online and started checking the mugshots to see if our daughter had been arrested. Unfortunately, they run a day behind so we still didn't know if difficult child was in jail.

I went to bed but couldn't sleep so I was up again checking the mugshots at 1:30am. Still no difficult child. . .

The next morning, I called difficult child and her phone was still going straight to voicemail. At lunchtime, I was about to call the director of the halfway house but decided to try difficult child one more time and she answered! She sounded cheery and was surprised to hear me say that I was so happy to hear her voice. When I explained why, she laughed and said, "I'm not in jail, Mom."

So it must have been a coincidence but it's so sad that husband and I both assumed the worst.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Kathy...I can so empathize with you on this one.

I must have someone's old phone number that has a friend in the county jail. Even though I have had this phone number for two years now they must still remember it or it is one of Cory's friends or someone is really lonely and makes up numbers to call...lol. But I have gotten several calls in the last few months from the county jail and because I have a cellphone I cant accept the calls. All I can make out is a weird sort of grunting noise for the name. Sort of sounds like...puhhh. I have no clue. Cory has no clue why anyone would call me.
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
OMG Kathy I so would have assumed the same. I bet you were frantic. FYI you can usually check the common pleas or municipal courts docket on line for the county she lives in. I did that when difficult child was in college two years ago and actually found her arrest online before she even had a chance to tell us. That's pretty sad when you regularly check the court docket expecting to see your difficult child's name. I'm so glad it turned out to be nothing.

Nancy
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Kathy...Sadly, I understand. My daughter used to get visits from the cops. Every time she'd run out of the house at night (boy, she had some creative ways to get out when we were asleep) we wondered if she was either in the hospital or in jail. I laughed a little at your story, but it was sad laughter.

I'm glad it was not jail. Phew!
 
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