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I caved into my daughters demand that she attend the public high school for the last two years, after attending Catholic schools for her entire education. What a mistake!

I recently saw the movie, "Mean Girls" and it was so close to the mark that I got the chills. What ultimately happened was that I became the notorious "Mean Mom" that every child has nightmares about; I spent most of those two years in front of that school. My daughter spent a fortune on the right clothes, hair, makeup, etc. Guess whose fortune that was? It was likely the most expensive and time consuming chapter of my life, and I see it as a big fat mistake all the way around. I caved into a 16 yr. old and paid dearly. She did OK and went on to college, but it would have been so much easier if I had stood my ground.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I cannot say what is best for hsmx3's daughter, but what really helped the most in our situation was the fact that I forced my daughter to always have an after school job. Her ice cream parlor job was a lifesaver. For me!!

I went to public school up to and including 9th grade. I had some sort of major mental change and told my mom I wish to go to Catholic HS starting in 10th grade. Go figure. Best 3 years of my life and now at 40 I am still best friends with the 3 girls I met in 10th grade at the Catholic HS. I consider them sisters. In addition I met my husband to be in 9th grade at the public school. We hung out as friends throughout HS and finally started dating when we were 21. Now married for 15 years, 2 kids. He paid his own way through college. He is very successful in his career despite public school. His family just could not afford the options I got.