Reply To: Going off the Derech

MDG-Maybe you missed some of the details in this thread, or maybe I didn’t reveal everything. Unfortunately my son didn’t tell us about the bullying in the beginning. But as soon as we found out, we went to the school where they were very supportive. And they followed through on their threat to expel any kid who continued. But this was only temporary, bc over the years, it still continued in a more modified way. My son could have gone to a different school, and we tried to put him somewhere else, but he wouldn’t go.

As far as what the neighbors say, that was never my priority and it still isn’t. It’s true that we suffered alienation to a certain degree bc of his deviation from black and white, but knowing there was an underlying reason to this change concerned me more.

What’s there to do? Of course we have apologized dozens of times for all of our imperfections. If we had known he would suffer in this school, of course we never would have put him there. We have backed down 100%! We bought him his jeans, his t-shirts and his jewelry. We drive him and his friends places, and my husband often speaks to them when he sees them in the neighborhood.

But if you ask him the reason he rebelled, he would tell you it has nothing to do with us nor the school….it’s just the way he wants to be.