Fornits

Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

Hey David,

Yes I do remember you and your brother. Did I make you sleep on hardwood floors with just a sheet? What a tool I was!!! It makes me cringe to think about how I treated people - how we all treated eachother, sometimes.
Congrats on the family and the soon to come addition! You must have your hands full.
I had totally forgot that I had gone to Utah. So long ago. The only part of that trip I remember is going to the "shore" of the great Salt Lake. I jumped from some rocks on to the sand to discover it was not sand at all but rather a sand colored mixture of foul smelling slime and worms. I sank about 6 inches in the muck and reeked for hours afterwards. (I've been to Utah many times since and know it has much prettier sights than that - that experience just stuck in my mind for some reason)
Not much else to say about myself. Have lived in Dc for two years. I work as a television news producer covering politics. DC is fine, but I miss living in NYC. So, I hope to move back there in the next couple of years.
Very nice to hear from you - good luck with the new baby!

KSmith,
I'm afraid I don't remember much and having an especially hard time remembering many people from the girls side other than staff members... As I look at more of this site the names and faces are slowly coming back to me.
When I first came in the program I made it to the 5th phase in about 6 months and then they started setting me back phase by phase until I was back on first again.
Spent about 6 to 8 months being rebellous but managed to avoid being restrained more than just a couple of times.  I floated around a long time but kept under the radar for the most part...
I was on the 3rd phase for the third time when I made the conscious decision to lie my way out of the program. I clearly remember making up my mind...I came back to the group after a day of school and was feeling really guilty about something ridiculous (don't even recall what it was - probably for looking at a girl for more than 5 seconds). I was so dreading having to get up in the group to talk about it...and then it just hit me - I don't have to talk about this! Who's going to know? I don't have to talk about any of this ridiculous garbage....
And from that moment I essentially liberated myself from the program. I let go of all the guilt and intense self-doubt and decided that I just needed to get out of this gulag... I had been there long enough at that point to know what I needed to talk about to appear tobe honestly working through my phases...so within a few months I lied my way back to 5th phase and graduated at the end of 1988...

The decision I made that day to con my way through is probably the only thing that saved me from being in the program for 5 years plus...

After graduating I hung out with other graduates for a time and even rented a beach house on the Jersey shore for a couple off weeks one summer...but as time went by I stopped coming by the program and stopped talking to people there - it was just too hard to maintain and I no longer saw the point...

But I was very lucky...when I severed contact my parents did not choose to "excommunicate" me the way many other parents did...my life would be much different had I been forced to completely fend for myself at the age of 18...

So in assessing my KIDS experience I always tell myself that it could have been far worse and if I could get through that I can pretty much get through anything....

I was in Kids from 1985 to 1988. This is my first posting. Was quite amazed to find this thriving community of people who left the program. Quite a cathartic experience to read all of these postings. I have spent little time thinking about my experience in Kids, but often wonder what came of the people I spent so much time with. I see some names I recognize and it is indeed heartening to see that so many people have moved on with their lives.

I graduated the program in 1988 and became "estranged" within 6 months when the Newtons & Co. demanded that I be setback and start the program over again. Luckily I was 18 and my parents had had enough of the program. So from 1988 on I neither saw nor heard about anyone in the Kids program.

So I doubt that many people will remember me save for the fact that I think I might have been one of the few people in the program who lived in New York City. (I brought many newcomers home to our apartment in New York City and after myriad copout attempts, the powers that be decided I should only bring home newcomers from Utah who wouldn't feel at home or know where to go in the Big Apple)

I have so completely blocked out the Kids experience from my mind that reading these vaious posts brings back a wave of emotions. I don't feel traumatized by the experience, but it certainly altered the course of my life...

Anyway, it is really good to know that so many people from the program still communicate with eachother and I hope to hear more about the people I remember...
Kevin F.