Madison's Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

  It's not really her fault; not completely. Madison was born before her parents even really knew each other, back when they liked each other and the idea of being in love.  Her father did everything for her when she was an infant. It was difficult to convince him to let anyone hold her other than himself. When Madison was just a little older than two, her father left - disappeared. He had realized that he did not like his wife or his life, and he bolted. Madison did not see her father again for several years.  Instead, her grandmother took over a lot of the parenting - until she died shortly after Madison's fifth birthday.  Less than two years later, she lost her Aunt Sharon and Aunt Kay.  In fact, before Madison was ten years old she watched more than ten people leave her life - many from death, many more from a change in life circumstances.  All of this left an impression on the little girl; she believed with all of her heart that life's very foundation is that people leave.  As a result, Madison was materialistic.  Money and the things money can buy very quickly fulfilled the holes left by those who walked out the door. I never once visited without Madison asking for money, or things, or both. When we arrived home for our yearly visit, Madison would meet us at the door with a catalog in hand so she could tell us what she wanted. The catalog changed from year to year, but the conversation never did.  We would tell her that we couldn't afford to buy her expensive items because we just paid to come visit her.  She would then intonate that she would have preferred the gifts.  In the background, we paid for her dance lessons, soccer fees, violin lessons, movie tickets, and much more.  We spent hundreds of dollars each month making sure that Madison could have a good life, but the damage was already done. In all fairness, I'm not certain that Madison's mother ever told her that we were the ones paying for all of the things she got to do.  She never realized that for the 51 weeks per year that we were not visiting that we called and spoke to her mother constantly.  I shouldn't have been surprised when she told me that I knew nothing about her and could go fuck myself when I disagreed with her and her boyfriend getting a dog together at 15 years old. I had made the fatal mistake of telling Madison that I didn't agree with her getting what she wanted, and she was going to make me pay for it!