Carlbrook Grad is genuine. I don't know how many of you are ex-program kids, or program parents. I do know that there is generally a difference of opinion between the kids and the parents. So I asked my kid, if I had just left you alone, put up with you, continued with therapy and hoped you just outgrew your stupid, destructive phase, would you have been ok? He said "no." He said he needed the wilderness to have some time to understand and deal with himself and needed a school such as Carlbrook after that. If you've ever seen the grief experienced by a parent whose kid is in prison, or dead (and I know both) what happens is that you love your kid, and you'd do absolutely anything for him to be ok. Including send him to a program. It hurts. Ex program kids, think of it this way: you have a cute, but stupid puppy. The damn thing runs out into traffic every chance it gets. It's going to get killed. First you fence in the back yard. Puppy digs under the fence and is out in traffic again. You rescue him in the nick of time, and put him back in the fenced yard, and this time he's tied to a tree. Puppy is safe, puppy hates it, and you feel like you did the best you could, but you still feel like shit. You hurt whenever you see poor puppy out in the yard. You wish he could run loose, and stay out of trouble. I feel a little better that my kid says he was helped by wilderness and Carlbrook, but it still hurts. I tried to think about what I'd do if a time machine took us back four years, but I don't have an answer for you. It still hurts.
