209: Didn’t Ask to Be Born
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From WBE Z, Chicago, this is American Life, distributed by Public Radio International, on our glass. "Keep this in mind, there is another quart of oil in the trunk of the car." "Okay, I'll take the corolla." "No." This tape is from the documentary TV program American High, a kid named Morgan is fighting with his parents because he wants to use the good car, the corolla, and not the bad car, the acclaim. "If I wear my Tigger suit, can I take the corolla?" "No, it's particularly if you're wearing your Tigger suit, you can't take the corolla." "Why?" Just something about the way this family argues that it's deeply, deeply entertaining. They're out to amuse themselves, even when they're fighting. "How am I supposed to get women in that car?" "You're not. That was one of the reasons I bought it. I tested it first, and I didn't find any women when I was driving it." "You get!" "I said this is the car I bought." "You can't be like, can't you?" "I want to get a hallway car for you." "No." One of the things that was fascinating about watching this TV show American High was watching the family dynamics. The other families that the producers filmed fought completely differently than this one did. Less humor, more strain. Of course, nobody in a family chooses the family dynamic. It just kind of happens. I mean, things go wrong in a family. It can feel like nobody had any choice about that either. You know, a kid does something that sets off a parent and then does something that sets off the kid and on and on and on. Well, today on our show, we bring you two stories that are sort of worst-case scenarios for any parent. Both kind of incredible stories because when you take apart how what happened happened, it's really hard to see how anybody could have prevented things from going bad. Our first story is told by a mother and two of her four daughters, her two oldest daughters, teenagers when the story begins, though the mom remembers their baby years this way. "When Amanda was born, I was 21 years old. All I wanted to do was care for her and that's what I did. It was funny when I got pregnant with Stephanie, I was thinking I'll never love anybody like I love Amanda. I could not imagine that my heart could grow large enough to accommodate another child because I loved Amanda with such an overwhelming sense of identity. She was me and I was her. I mean, we were so linked. And then, of course, when Stephanie was born, this astonishing thing happened and I fell in love with her, too. I was really, really close to those two.
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