Teen who raised her siblings gets no respect from adults

DEAR ABBY: I’m 18. I started helping to take care of children at the age of two. I have taken care of them alone since I was seven. Yet every time older people talk about child care, I am excluded from the conversation with comments like, “You don’t know what we’re talking about. You’re not a parent.” I even get these kinds of comments from people who have asked me for advice.

I know it shouldn’t bother me, yet it does. After raising my younger siblings by myself and taking care of the house, is it wrong for me to consider myself a parent? — PRACTICALLY A PARENT

DEAR PRACTICALLY A PARENT: No, in my opinion it isn’t. Of this I am certain: You have more parenting experience than the adults who left a seven-year-old caring for her siblings by herself without supervision. According to the law, that qualifies as child neglect and abuse.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, Calif., 90069. buildup in the heart could be fatal. You need a doc’s guidance and maybe an 81-milligram aspirin morning and night to decrease inflammation and clotting, which released fat can trigger.

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Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic. Email your health and wellness questions to Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen at youdocsdaily@sharecare.com.