I don’t think my point was leaving home, and I didn’t think we were talking about struggling teens. I thought we were talking about how awful it is that males who don’t fit the mold are treated inferior “in the frum community” and I was trying to politely say that this may not really be the case everywhere. We are talking about it as if it is global. There are so many communities where people are really frum and you can still be different and respected. It was supposed to be chizuk, as in “don’t be discouraged, you can feel special and accepted in lots of frum circles”.
**As an aside, we couldn’t afford any of those choices either but when my kid is suffering there are no choices 🙂 **