Carlbrook

[Anonymous]

On 2006-02-17 15:15:00, Anonymous wrote:

"If any unsuspecting parent or happy ex-TBS student doubts the single focus of this forum and the lengths the posters will go to in order to be nasty and inappropriate, just read through some of the threads, particularly the Karenindallas thread under Brat Camp.

This is NOT a place for intelligent debate or sharing of ideas and information.

I will save you time and summarize the information on this forum:

1. All emotional growth programs are abusive and can not do any possible good for a teen.

2. Any parent who sends a teen to wilderness or an RTC or TBS is a terrible parent who hates their kid and all kids.

3.  The regulars on this forum are experts on emotional growth programs and know everything there is to know about the staff and the treatment methods are every program. None of them are good.

4. If a former student attempts to defend a program or explain how it helped him or her, it is because he/she has been brainwashed by the program.  In a few years the person will figure it out and remember how they were abused at the program.

5. Anyone who claims to have gone to a good college after the program or to have received a valuable high school degree is lying.

6. Any parent who recommends a program to another parent is doing so because they get a kick-back from the program.

7. All educational consultants are in it for the money and get kick-backs from the programs they recommend."

Whine, whine, whine, baby. ::crybaby::  ::crybaby::  ::crybaby::  ::crybaby::  ::crybaby::  ::crybaby::  ::crybaby::  ::crybaby::

[Anonymous]

1. All emotional growth programs are abusive and can not do any possible good for a teen.
2. Any parent who sends a teen to wilderness or an RTC or TBS is a terrible parent who hates their kid and all kids.
3. The regulars on this forum are experts on emotional growth programs and know everything there is to know about the staff and the treatment methods are every program. None of them are good.
4. If a former student attempts to defend a program or explain how it helped him or her, it is because he/she has been brainwashed by the program. In a few years the person will figure it out and remember how they were abused at the program.
5. Anyone who claims to have gone to a good college after the program or to have received a valuable high school degree is lying.
6. Any parent who recommends a program to another parent is doing so because they get a kick-back from the program.
7. All educational consultants are in it for the money and get kick-backs from the programs they recommend.

You speak the truth!

Thanks for typing out all the anti-program talking points, it will save me a lot of time. Now I can just reference this post for newbies.  :smile:

[Anonymous]

I know why these parents are so angry, I was ripped off just like they were. My son is now slightly older, and some has time has passed since his time in Carlbrook when he was seventeen. This parent supporting Carlbrook could have been me a short while ago, I believed it all too. We aren't evil people, believe that or not, we were just taken in by corrupt people wanting to make a quick buck off the backs of scared and ignorant parents. My son is now doing well in college, but only after he received proper treatment and therapy for his time at Carlbrook. He tell us now we wasted our money and it was a complete waste of time, and he had a horrible time. We still don't talk about it much, hopefully one day he can tell me everything. When I bring the subject up he gets angry so I let it go right now. I hope this can get better over the years. I apologize daily for my mistakes and hope he knows that I mean it. I found this forum by searching on Google and it is a great resource from what I can see. I've met other program parents and the posts here don't surprise me. We aren't all "tricked" into sending our child away with good intentions. Some parents just want to get rid of the child, it was sad to see that is the case sometimes. But this was not the case with my son. If you care about your child find an alternative to this place, it will only bring you problems in the future. Not to mention the college funds we wasted, now my husband had to go back to work and we all regret our ill fated decision. Once we got into family therapy and let him take responsibility for his life, well we really had no choice since he turned eighteen, things changed for the better. Once we stopped trying to control him and mold him into our ideal child things started to change for the better. Sending him away did nothing. If you have any questions for me or want to know more about my own experience please email me at [email protected] Thank you for your time and for the opportunity for me to say this.

[Deborah]

What I think would be helpful to other parents is to describe how the program was sold to you. What you expected based on that, and what you received.

I particularly appreciate this "wisdom born of pain":
Once we got into family therapy and let him take responsibility for his life, well we really had no choice since he turned eighteen, things changed for the better. Once we stopped trying to control him and mold him into our ideal child things started to change for the better.

[Anonymous]

On 2006-02-17 16:29:00, Deborah wrote:

I particularly appreciate this "wisdom born of pain":

Eeeeeek!!  Did that phrase just send chills up any other Straight survivors backs?   :scared:  :scared:

Deb I know there's no way you could have known but that line is from a song that Straight changed the lyrics to and made us sing over and over and over again about how 'grateful' we were for Straight.

[Anonymous]

These negative people are, for the most part, NOT program parents.  They are people with no connection whatsoever to the programs which they bash.
Ms. Gaulder, if you are for real, which I doubt, it sounds like your son did not benefit at all from Carlbrook. That is the case with a number of kids in any program.  There is no way the managing staff at Carlbrook is out to make a quick buck. They work night and day for relatively modest salaries.  Your son "had a horrible time". Did you think you were sending him to golf camp?

[Anonymous]

On 2006-02-17 16:37:00, Anonymous wrote:

"These negative people are, for the most part, NOT program parents.  They are people with no connection whatsoever to the programs which they bash.

Some of us are former inmates of these places with kids of our own so we can speak to both sides of the issue.  Some are parents of teens who were sent away and the parents realized what a grave mistake they made.  Some are both of those things plus having done years of research on the subject.

How do you come to have any knowledge of these places?

[Antigen]

On 2006-02-17 16:29:00, Deborah wrote:

Once we stopped trying to control him and mold him into our ideal child things started to change for the better.

I had exactly the same luck w/ my eldest.

To the anon who thinks we don't know what we're talking about, we were closer than you ever were. You just wrote the checks and went to a couple of watered down versions of what you paid to have done to your kid. How in the world does it happen that we all, over generations and the entire geographical range of the continental US, can so well understand each other if your cult is just nothing a'tall like the rest?

[Entish] is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.

--Tree Beard

[Troll Control]

particularly the Karenindallas thread under Brat Camp.

Ahhh...memories.  That is a GREAT thread.  :nworthy:  Thanks for bringing it up.  I'm going to bump it!

[Deborah]

On 2006-02-17 16:35:00, Anonymous wrote:

"

On 2006-02-17 16:29:00, Deborah wrote:


I particularly appreciate this "wisdom born of pain":

Eeeeeek!!  Did that phrase just send chills up any other Straight survivors backs?   :scared:  :scared:



Deb I know there's no way you could have known but that line is from a song that Straight changed the lyrics to and made us sing over and over and over again about how 'grateful' we were for Straight."

So sorry to 'restimulate' bad memories. I truly did not know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous poster who doubts my existence: I just looked in the mirror, and yes, I am real. No, I did not think I was sending him to "golf camp", I thought I was sending him to an environment that fosters "intellectual, social, and personal development" as Carlbrook  told me. You might have viewed it as a punishment I did not. My mistake. I came here to share my own experience and I find your rudeness and dismissiveness rather ironic considering your warnings earlier. Nobody else has been rude to me other than you. I suggest you take a look at your own actions before condemning everyone else. -Joe

[Anonymous]

On 2006-02-17 16:54:00, Deborah wrote:

"

On 2006-02-17 16:35:00, Anonymous wrote:


"

On 2006-02-17 16:29:00, Deborah wrote:



I particularly appreciate this "wisdom born of pain":

Eeeeeek!!  Did that phrase just send chills up any other Straight survivors backs?   :scared:  :scared:





Deb I know there's no way you could have known but that line is from a song that Straight changed the lyrics to and made us sing over and over and over again about how 'grateful' we were for Straight."

So sorry to 'restimulate' bad memories. I truly did not know.

"

No reason to be sorry.  :smile:

[Anonymous]

I wrote the warning.  I didn't write the rest. There is more than one anonymous poster here.  I'll call myself A.P.1 from now on.  I think there are two or three current Carlbrook parents lurking.

[YuckFou]

1. All emotional growth programs are abusive and can not do any possible good for a teen.
2. Any parent who sends a teen to wilderness or an RTC or TBS is a terrible parent who hates their kid and all kids.
3. The regulars on this forum are experts on emotional growth programs and know everything there is to know about the staff and the treatment methods are every program. None of them are good.
4. If a former student attempts to defend a program or explain how it helped him or her, it is because he/she has been brainwashed by the program. In a few years the person will figure it out and remember how they were abused at the program.
5. Anyone who claims to have gone to a good college after the program or to have received a valuable high school degree is lying.
6. Any parent who recommends a program to another parent is doing so because they get a kick-back from the program.
7. All educational consultants are in it for the money and get kick-backs from the programs they recommend.

 ::nod::  ::nod::  ::nod::  ::nod::  ::nod::

[Antigen]

On 2006-02-17 16:02:00, Anonymous wrote:

This parent supporting Carlbrook could have been me a short while ago, I believed it all too. We aren't evil people, believe that or not, we were just taken in by corrupt people wanting to make a quick buck off the backs of scared and ignorant parents. My son is now doing well in college, but only after he received proper treatment and therapy for his time at Carlbrook. He tell us now we wasted our money and it was a complete waste of time, and he had a horrible time. We still don't talk about it much, hopefully one day he can tell me everything. When I bring the subject up he gets angry so I let it go right now. I hope this can get better over the years. I apologize daily for my mistakes and hope he knows that I mean it.

My dad was the same way. Just to clarify, I never sent my daughter off anywhere. Not cause I'm super enlightened, but because I had been sent off so I knew better. My dad was so into it at one point that he actually called a cop and made something up to get me arrested because he was sure I needed to finish the Program. Never mind that he had to make something up because I wasn't actually breaking laws or causing trouble.

I don't recall if he ever used the words "I'm sorry" but it never mattered anyway. We talked just one time about it. He let me know that he knew he had been took. From that moment on he never again tried to fix or control me. That's all that mattered. My dad and I were tight when I was a kid. This weirdness happened. Then we were pretty close for the rest of his life.

Everything that people say to you is personal. Whether it is constructive criticism or not will determine whether it cam from and asshole or not.

----Bill Warbis