Sat watching one of their vlogs and all I feel is overwhelming sadness- I’ve loved this family, they’ve always seemed so wholesome and the children want for nothing (they’re not without their flaws but which families aren’t!) then I realised the ages they were when baby number 1 was conceived!
I was 13 when I lost my virginity to a 20 year old, I felt so in love and safe with him and nothing could keep me away from him. Then he started passing me around his friends, and it was too late to get out of the grooming gang by myself. By 14 I’d already slept with 7 men. I am so so thankful that charities and young people’s service helped me and saved my life. I’m now 23 with one child and I think of all the growing up and amazing things I’ve done since then- worked with charities and schools to raise awareness of grooming, gone on holidays, gone to festivals, nights out, first love, first job, going to college, returning to college as an adult, getting our cats, driving lessons etc all those life lessons I’ve had and the person I’ve grown into. I can’t imagine how different my life would have been, and how much less of life I would have experienced if I’d have fallen pregnant back then (which was a risk as I was too scared to ask for birth control, and the men didn’t care to use their own). I feel like although I would have grown up very fast by putting another life first and having to take on those responsibilities, all the personal growth and learning who I was as a person wouldn’t have happened. And so many young mums discover that stuff later on in life but all she’s been is a mother. I look at this 45+ year old woman and think all she’s ever done is be a mother, and it makes me so sad. She looks so child like and her eyes to me just scream sadness! I don’t think she’s sad, I think she’s probably quite content in her life but I also feel like her childhood and potential has been robbed by a MAN (he was 18!) who should have known better.
I know I can teach my child(ren) from my experiences, hopefully be able to keep them from going down the paths I went down, I have the horror stories to tell- but what about the Radford children? Their parents story is a “love” story- how do you tell them that it’s wrong for adults to sleep with children? How do you keep them safe if their role models are “in love” and it all worked out fine?