Hi I’m Diane, I’m a single mother and I have two teenage children.
A couple of years ago, when my daughter Leanne was 14, I became really concerned about her behaviour. She had started going out late at night without telling me where she was going, and then I discovered that she was missing loads of school. I decided to confront her but it didn’t help as she just became aggressive with me and then she would go out even more.
It felt like I was losing her, I needed to find a way to bring her back but I didn’t know what to do.
I suspected Leanne was drinking quite a bit, and I’ve always been concerned that she might be involved with drugs – I didn’t really know anything about them, so wouldn’t have known the signs if she did.
One of my friends suggested I talk to The Door – I wasn’t sure at first; I’m a working parent and I’ve never needed help before, I didn’t know whether I’d ‘fit in’ at The Door.
But I was so worried about Leanne that I decided to try. From the moment I met Sandra I knew I was in the right place. Nothing about my story seemed to shock her, she was really empathetic and just knew the right things to say.
I started out on the Triple P Parenting Programme, led by Sandra, which gave me some strong foundations to build on. Using the techniques I learnt there, I was able to convince Leanne to agree to come to The Door with me and meet with Sandra, and we started what The Door call Family FaceTime.
During our Family FaceTime sessions Sandra was able to help us talk through some tough things without it turning into an argument or fight like it did at home. We learned that Leanne and I are very similar so we tend to rub each other up the wrong way. Sandra helped us to communicate with each other better.
Two years on and as a result of the support from The Door I have my daughter back! Leanne and I get on much better and we spend more time together than we used to. Throughout all the troubles I’ve managed to maintain a stable home environment and my son hasn’t even noticed what has been happening!
Being able to have an impartial empathetic person who is able to listen to concerns in a non-judgemental way has been invaluable. The relationship with my daughter has massively improved and she has matured emotionally too.
The Door parent support scheme was the only support available for someone in my position because I was between thresholds – not high enough for social care but high enough to cause huge distress to my family.
The only people there to help us were The Door! So, thank you so much for being there for us – if you hadn’t been able to help me there would not have been an ‘us’!