No Emotion

My daughter is 16 and has no emotion, expecially sadness.Let me give you a little background. Her and I lived with my mom from her birth till she was 2, my dad became ill and I moved to help him. I got merried when Ashley was 3 and he really did not have much to do with her but when he did it was that she never did anything right, or good enough, we seperated and moved back to my moms when she was 5. We stayed about 6 monthes and me and my husband tried to work things out so we moved to Amarillo TX. We were togeather again for about 2 years and all was not well. My dad became verry ill again in 2002 and we moved back to Florida. Since we have been back her favorit aunt has passed away, her Grampy Don has passed away and she loved him so much and now my dad has passed. She cried a little when her aunt passed and a lot the day she found out her grampy died but since then she has not showed no emotion, my dad passed and it was just like a nother day to her. Now hse shows no emotion, never cries unless she is verry mad but never shows sadness. What should I do..

[AnnieBrooke]

Well, it sounds like you have done quite enough already.  Dr. Laura advises not to date until your children are out of the house, since it often leads to marriages like you have described, and the kids suffer by being made number 2 to some guy for whom their mom moves all over the country and puts the kids into an unloved position.  In your shoes, I wouldn't add to it now press her to cry or to "feel."  I'd probably tell her that I was so sorry about how things worked out for her as a result of you marrying and then trying to save it when you could see it was not good.  Then save up some money so she can talk to a counselor as she feels she needs it, and offer her your sympathetic support (but not be in her face about it) as she tries to work out what that rather emotionally tumultuous early life has done to her.  She might still be in survival and not ready to open that can of worms yet.  Save the money in a special account and tell her she has access to it for any kind of counseling or therapy she might want now or later, and then try to create some stability  in her life, while letting her be who she is, tears or no tears.

[margypops]

What is her life like now, is all well at school has she friends , does she have interests , sports ,it could be she doesn;t show emotion in front of others ,she may still feel the loss.,