I just turned 30 last week and I have a 15 year old daughter and a 10 month old grand daughter. It's been difficult. We are very close because I can understand a lot of what she is going through. I'm so scared for her though. She basically grew up with me as off as that sounds...I had her in the 8th grade and she has watched me struggle. We had to move out on our own when I was 15. I got a job and lived with roommates until the school found out I was living without my mom and turned me in to CPS. Then my daughter and I lived in a group home until I was 18. I did graduate college and things started to get easier. I'm very hard of hearing so I had to find a career that I could physically do, which was discouraging for a few years. I remember when she started kindergarten I was 19 and the school would call CPS on me all the time because they were sure tht I must be a terrible mother, I guess. Nothing was ever substantiated, but it was very stressful and made me doubt my parenting skills for a long time. It was hard to date (which took YEARS before I even wanted to,) because I had to think about things other people didn't need to. Background checks, waiting six months to make sure they weren't a wolf in sheep's clothing, and just being overly cautious in general. I found out later, that I was VERY right to do that with one man who stabbed his ex's new boyfriend and held the baby hostage for a couple hours in a hotel room. We got through all of that together and it was us against the world. Now, we have new challenges with her having a baby, but I'm trying to be there for her in the ways that my druggie mother (and father) would not or could not be. I have high hopes and expectations for her. *sorry for any spelling mistakes-I'm on my mobile an it's my first time posting so I'm not familiar with formatting..