Calling for her Mama

At 2:30am, I posted my status on Facebook as "Can't sleep :( wants to watch Burn Notice." but I think I fell asleep after 30 minutes of tossing and turning (and snoring in the room).  A little before 4am I awoke because of a repeating sound outside.

Our neighbor has a teen or a young "adult" daughter.  She must have missed her curfew because she has been calling, shouting, yelling (yes, yelling!) Ma (for Mama I suppose) for over an hour.  An hour, and that was only starting from the time I woke up.  What if she had been yelling even before that!

I immediately recalled an instance at home.  My sister had her rebellious stage and would come home at wee hours in the morning or sometimes even at 5am.  She had this stage of just wanting to party, drink, and smoke with her friends.  My Mama and Tatang would always remind her in the morning that it's not proper for girls to stay out that late and all the other dangers of being outside during those hours, but they never really made any difference to her.

One time, my mother got tired of it and closed all the doors and gate by 3am.  My sister arrived at the house at around 4 maybe, climbed up the gate and kept knocking on our front and side door.  I knew my mom was up.  I knew she could hear my sister knocking, quietly calling out for someone to open the door.  My sister would even go around the house and call us from our windows.  My mother gave instructions to our helpers and to me NOT to open the doors.

Left with no choice, my sister slept in the garage... on the floor, with our dogs.  Our dogs are not in-house dogs, mind you.  They just stay in the garage as guard dogs.  I think my mother got up at 6am and saw her uncomfortably sleeping on the steps with our dogs surrounding her. She didn't wake her either, she let my sister wake up on her own and realize that we all saw her like that.

I believe that was the last time my sister stayed out that late.  After that incident, she'd always call and say what time she'd be home so we can wait up for her.  If we can't wait up, she'd ask what time would be the latest that she could come home.  A hard way to learn her lesson, but my mother got it across.

When I became a mother I reminded my mother of that incident.  She confided that it was very, very hard for her when she did that but after months of my sister rebelling, she just didn't know what to do.  Although she and my sister were always at each others' throats during that stage, she had to stand her ground and not give in.  It seemed real harsh but it was the only way she could hold on to the "control".

Hearing the girl outside, I wonder if her mother was awake too all this time.  I wonder if this will be her last missed curfew.  I wonder if she can bear another instance of calling out for her Mama.  I hope she learned her lesson too.  It's 5:05am and I just stopped hearing her.  Either she fell asleep on the street or she was let in.  I hope it's the latter.

Have you had any similar experience?  Did you ever go through a rebellious stage?

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