Discipline = Love

This anecdote comes from William Noble, M.D., of the Pediatric Association of the University of Texas, and was shared in Girls Gone Mild by Wendy Shalit:

Recently Todd, an anxious fifteen-year-old male patient, presented to clinic with vague reproductive tract complaints. He was accompanied by his mother, who returned to the waiting room after the initial interview. His history gradually revealed a series of sexual encounters with a woman several years his senior. The sexual liaisons included other risks as well, including alcohol and substance use. The teen’s anxiety resulted from an awareness that his behavior placed him at risk for HIV. He requested HIV testing. While discussing the testing and evaluation for other sexually transmitted infections, the boy began to cry.

‘I don’t think that my mom loves me,’ he sobbed.
‘Why do you say that?’ I responded.
‘She doesn’t care where I go or who I’m with or if I come home at night. I don’t have a curfew and she never asks what I’m doing.'”