Photo by Zhanyi

Sarah from The Real World: Brooklyn always appears pretty cool and put together… That was until her dad called. Apparently there was some sexual abuse at a day care in her past. After that her parents separated and her father started acting “strange” towards her. The phone call from her Dad turns her from someone enjoying their time in the house to a hysterical victim of abuse when she picks up the phone and realizes it is him. She then hangs up and calls her mother for support. Her mother says not to be a victim and to tell him she does not want to talk to him.

At this point in the episode, I am thinking this man, Sarah’s father, was some kind of monster to a little girl, and touched her inappropriately or worse. BUT… we later find out what he did….

When they went camping he only brought one sleeping bag for them to sleep in. Ten years ago she was what, eight or ten? I think for a father to sleep in a sleeping bag with his daughter when she is eight years old, and they are camping is fine, but Sarah called her mother to come pick her up right away from this camping trip.

Listen, my point is that she was about eight. If her mother wasn’t saying bad things about her father, she would’ve believed, like every other little girl, that her father is a hero, and would’ve wanted to speak with him (unless something else happened). I think to not speak to her father for ten years and to just trust her mother that he was a bad guy is giving up her relationship with her father without a valid reason. I understand that now, after ten years of trying to convince people of what happened, she is defensive and probably will never speak to her father again. It’s too bad, maybe if more of her relatives on her dad’s side would’ve listened to her and either tried to figure out what happened or why Sarah thought what happened was so terrible they could have helped her to have some kind (maybe not normal) relationship with her own dad.

I will say I think it is really awesome that she felt so fufilled volunteering to help with those kids and art therapy. I hope it helps her cope, and that maybe one day she can have some kind of dialog with her dad other than argueing about what happened ten years ago.