I was with a girl for about six months whose daughter had a traumatic brain injury as a baby. She was smart and we’d play video games together and she’d help me do stuff outside. She was a great kid. But she also got really violent and stubborn. Like the dog would chew up her toy she left in the floor, and she would just start wailing on the dog and you’d have to pull her off of him. Or she’d kick the shit out of her sister for some little nothing that happened. She’d yell and talk about some really dark things like what you’re talking about.

That was hard. I didn’t know how to deal with it. I’d just talk to her like a grown person and it just didn’t work that way. Her mom would spank her, and that would work for like 10 minutes before it was back to the same shit. I mean, I felt useless cause I don’t believe in that kind of discipline.

I respect people with kids like that. Because I know how hard it was trying to make a family out of that situation, and I really failed at it. I worry about those two girls and their mommy every day, but I can’t go back to that.