I'm Sending My 14-Year-Old to a Detention Center! | KARAMO

So I know we're here for something serious. Tell me, when did you start having the problems with Kaylie?

It started last year. I currently was looking for a house, so we was in a shelter during this time. And she just blew off the rip. One of the people that, you know, 'cause we stayed there with other people. So as we there, they must have touched her soda or ice cream or something, I forgot what it was. And out the gate, she went in the room, it's only a room, we share a room. So she went in the room, I don't, They always touching my stuff. I'm like, Kayla, well just get dressed. We can go to another store. It's only 8 o'clock. You know, don't blow up. We in the shelter.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They always touching my stuff. So I go out, I ask the worker, hey, is there something else that y'all got in there for my daughter to drink before I go to the store? Oh no, well, you know, you can leave to go get something. That's what blew her off. I shouldn't have to get nothing and this and that. So now I'm trying to calm her down. She bucking at me, bucking. I'm like, hold on. So at this point, Yeah. I'm like, what's going on? And she tried to swing, like actually tried to swing on me.

Oh my God.

And the people at the shelter, they had to call the police because it's other family members there. And if they feel like I can't control you being your mom, you can't come.

Control him. That makes sense. Is Kayla your only child?

Yes, only one.

Wow. Okay, so it's just you two? Yes. Got it. Is her father involved at all? No. Not at all.

He been left as the— When I was pregnant, he went to jail when I was 5 months pregnant. When he got out, she was 3. And he got married when she was 4, so.

He haven't been there. No. I'm sorry.

I try to give her the benefit of the doubt. And now that she see that I haven't whooped her, it's like she feel like she can whoop my ass. She feel like she the parent. I tell her something, I don't gotta do that shit. It's just that. I tell her to go to school. I'm not going to school. This was just last week. The welfare people called me, I gotta do a welfare check on Kaylee. She haven't been to school in a week.

And from your perspective, you thought she was going to school.

Hey mom, I'm going to school in the morning. Then she'll put her phone on DND. Okay, at 4:15 she'll turn it back on as if she was in school. She able to talk.

Okay, that makes sense. My gosh, you're going through a lot. I'm so sorry. I'm really sorry. Is it hard to discipline Kaylin?

Yes.

Yeah, it is.

Very hard.

Has it always been that way?

No, she was a great kid. I don't know where my daughter at. That's not my daughter. It's not.

How long ago did it start?

It started, I'll say last year.

Last year, so it's been about a year.

'Cause after the shelter, we moved to Mississippi and it got worser.

Got it, got it.

We was in a whole nother state, you know, it's down south, it's very different down there. So she got to the point where she really wasn't listening to me. She don't think she can do stuff and I'm not going to Milwaukee. I asked her to get, I say, well, okay, well since you wanna like boys and, and do all that, get on birth control. I'm not doing that. The doctor said I don't have to. You heard what they said. If your daughter don't want to get it, then she don't have to. Oh, you have to. I mean, I'm not gonna be no young grandmama.

Yeah.

Oh, you can go.

Is she disrespectful to other people?

Oh yeah, very.

Very?

Very. You can go.

Yeah. My producer told me that you called the detention centers this week to put her away there. Tell me about that.

She was so disrespectful. I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it.

Too disrespectful.

So I called them, they ain't had no room that day, they was gonna call me back. So the day that I talked to your producers, just so happened they called me. I had just told like, hey, they called me, it's a spot for her, I think that's where she gonna go. If we leave this show today and can't nothing change, that's where you gonna have to go. A free bed, you ain't gotta worry about nothing, I ain't gotta worry about nothing.

But at least you gotta go somewhere.

I pick and choose when I wanna come see you. But you ain't gonna pick and choose when you wanna leave my house, when you wanna listen to me, when you wanna, play mama role or be a teenager. You not finna pick which one. Don't tell me what you finna do. You gonna do exactly what I say when I say it.

Got it, I understand. All right, so everyone, let's hear what Kaylee has to say about everything. Please welcome Kaylee to the show. How do you feel about what was just said?

Now I kind of understand, but it's like, it's just a lot from both sides and some of it wasn't told correctly.

Okay.

So what part wasn't told?

What was not told? Your mom was asking.

So talk louder. What part was a lie?

The shelter part.

So in the shelter you did not disrespect her?

So you did say you gonna be at the shelter.

I did, but it wasn't as she told it. It was like most so both sides. She didn't go ask the worker did they have something else to drink. She was sitting there talking about the situation. And I was on the phone being silent over there, mad. And she kept going and kept going. She kept pushing the situation. So I finally said something back and we just started arguing. And I was like, shut up, shut up, put on my shoes. And I went outside.

Got it.

And then that's when the police got called because when I went back inside, sat in the living room, I had swung on her because she kept talking about the situation. She walked up on me.

Okay, so that's the story your mother described though. What part of it is different?

I just feel like it's different from my perspective.

Okay, and I'm ready to hear it. What part? 'Cause I'm trying to like make sure I hear your side as well.

The talking part. I feel like she say respect goes both ways. It's like—

If you act like a bitch, that's what you gonna be called. I be calling her bitches sometimes. I be like, what the fuck? Who finna keep saying, hey, Kaylee, just calm down? No, bitch, what the fuck wrong with you? What's wrong with you? Your bitch ass think you wrong. That's how the fuck I talk to her. That's the truth.

So you're saying the only reason that you swung is because she stepped to you first and you felt like you had to protect yourself?

Yeah, and I kept telling her to move. Kept telling her. I reimbursed it like 2, 3 times.

Okay.

And she never moved.

I'm like, "Kaylee, I'm like Kaylee, come on, let's just go to the store. Let's just go to the store. Put your stuff on, put your stuff on. Nah, move, move, move." At this point I'm telling her to come on. Now you see what I'm saying? When I'm telling you to do something, you wanna do the opposite. But when you was just ready to go drink your soda that was in that refrigerator, you was ready to go to the store. Now that I'm ready to, okay, if this what you mad about, let's go buy some more. Now you don't wanna go to the store 'cause you wanna sit here and keep yelling and get into it. And you waiting until that white person walked in the living room for when she tried to swing on me. She knew if it wasn't nobody in there, I would've tore a hole in her ass.

Why do you think your mother is frustrated with you?

I don't know. I don't know if it's 'cause I, Remind her of herself when she was younger or like—

Oh!

Wow!

It's true.

I don't know.

I don't know. Even though I don't think I act like that. I don't even think I'm disrespectful at all.

Oh, I tell her, you very disrespectful. I wonder where I get it from.

Yeah.

That's all she say. That's her favorite word.

Oh, do you say that?

That's her favorite word. I wonder where I get it. You don't get that from me.

Mm-hmm, okay. So do you feel like you get your behavior from your mother?

I feel like I get mine—

She run around with hoes all day, younger than her. That's where she get it from, 'cause them hoes ain't got respect for they mama.

I don't act like them at all, and she even know that. She know I'm not a bad child. All day I sit at home in my room watching movies, on the phone. Every time I come out, I get yelled at. If I stay in my room, I get yelled at. It's like, what do you want?

Yeah. Is that true?

I'm gonna tell you why I do that. You stand in your room, you stand in your room all day, you don't come out cook, clean, you don't help me do nothing. You won't even prepare the food. I told her to wipe the stove, she wipe half of the stove. This the side that I'm using, so this the side that I'mma wipe. Who do that?

Is that true? Do you do that?

No, I did that one time.

Why did you skip school this month?

'Cause my hair wasn't did. And if I was to go to school with the little boys there, they'll like pick, like they'll try to pull off your hood or pull off my scarf. And I'm not finna be the type of person to sit there, just let somebody do that. I already knew it was gonna happen. Because why? Like I just wasn't finna do that or go through that. Be nobody laughing stock.

How did your mom react when she found out?

She was mad. And I was telling her, I was like, well, my hair wasn't did.

She missed 10 days up there in Mississippi, I automatically go to jail for 30. You already got 14 days. At any point in time this day, they can come pick me up 'cause you ain't been to school 'cause your hair ain't done.

You go to jail after 50 days that a child has not been at school.

It's after 50 days, so you wanna count these days up? Is she counting the days up for me to go to jail or what? If I'm telling you it's 14 when it's only 55, so you got 20 more days to miss.

Have you ever run away from home before?

One or two times, but it wasn't home. It was actually from her, not from home. When we went to Milwaukee one time, I had run away from her.

Out of the car at the lights. Okay, you telling the truth?

Out of the car because I think we was talking about going back home and I was like, well, I don't wanna go back home.

Oh, she wasn't ready to go home. I don't even got a half a tank of gas and you telling me when the fuck you wanna go? "If this only gas I got to get us back to where we live at, who finna stay down here? 'Cause you wanna stay down here. What you wanna do down here? You don't got no job. I don't listen to you. Where are we gonna sleep at down here if our shelter all the way 45 minutes away? It's not up to you, you not grown." Once again, what I say you do.

We had everywhere to sleep. She got friends, family.

Who wanna keep sleeping there? I'm already sleeping in the shelter I don't even wanna be at. Who wanna keep sleeping by other people's houses? I don't even wanna be at the shelter. My name's so bad with evictions, I can't even find a house with $1,500 behind my neck. That's why we moved to Mississippi. Mississippi, I moved, I got right there, I got there, got a house, got her in school. She went to play practice, get a little boyfriend. Now this is where she really going crazy at. She know we 12 hours away. It's just me and her down there. We moved. It's just me and her, nobody else. And whoever else we done met down there. You got these people in my business. I got in Diamond Court December 5th. December 5th from Mississippi. I had to pay $3,000 to get outta jail.

How long were you in there for?

For 6 days. So she was there by herself. The police locked me up. They didn't ask if I had somebody to watch her or nothing. So that's how CPS got in there.

Yeah.

But CPS knew she was old enough to stay at home by herself. So when I finally got out, paid the money, finally got out. So that month, September, we ain't had shit, can't pay rent. That's why we had to move from Mississippi too. I'm 2 months behind rent and the rent only $167. But I can't get a break if I gotta pay these 2 different bills by myself, still make sure we eat, you gotta go to school, you need shoes and clothes. We got light gas, man, dog, like hell nah, bro, I don't got no help. Like what the fuck do you want me to do? And you still on my ass about a hair, a shoe, a phone. We up and we struggling, bro. And she not making it no better.

Yeah.

And then you wanna play crazy. Yeah, I'd rather give you up and sign my rights over if this how the fuck you finna treat me.

How does it make you feel when your mother says that? Like she wants to call attention to something.

At first I was like getting sad and emotional about it, but as time went on—

She don't get no attention from my mama no way. You don't treat me like mama. Tell them the truth. Tell her, 'cause I'm gonna tell her.

That wasn't what I said. What else you want me to do?

If I know if I'm gonna come out my room, you gonna yell at me. So why would I?

Got it.

We don't have family time or nothing. We don't talk, we don't watch movies, TVs. We don't even, we'd probably text each other and we'd be in the next room.

What just made you start crying right there?

Huh?

What just made you start crying right there?

Because like, now that I'm finally on this show, it's like I really get to realize that's how she acts. And it's like she not even giving me a scenario of why.

I don't know.

What do you want your mother to understand?

I want her to understand that like, I will be there to help. I will help every time you ask, but it's like you can't just go off yelling.

Do you regret having a daughter?

You, I, if she was a boy, she'd probably be better, 'cause he'd be, he'd be able to be freely, you know. He a boy, he can go outside and you can run away. I ain't got to really watch you and put, you know, you can, you can do stuff that what she trying to do. But I can't just let you say run you away.

She know exactly what I said, eat you up and everything.

So let me tell y'all something because I'm gonna be very real. This entire time that I've been on the stage, I've been fighting back tears. And it's because as I'm watching you two, I understand both of your perspectives so clearly. I understand what you feel as a young girl. I've seen some wild, wild teenagers. You're not it. Do you have a mouth on you? Yes. And you know it. Do you make decisions of like not going to school that can put things in jeopardy? Yes, you know it. But I also understand you as a parent, and I understand when you are drowning and the one person you like, don't you realize I'm doing this for you, is you feel like is making it harder. Yes, I feel like I gotta lash out. Yes, I'm gonna be upset. Yes, I'm mad that you don't jump up as quick as I can. I'm doing everything I can. Can't you see that I'm moving here and there to make sure we're supported? I get you as well. And that's what's been making me so emotional because I understand both of your perspectives. And I also see the love here, even through the way y'all talk to each other. I'm sure you're probably thinking like, "My momma really don't love me though." I'm sure you feel that way sometimes. Like, "Does she really care about me?" Yeah. And I also know for you as a parent, you like, "All these things I'm doing is to show you that I love you." But you're also exhausted.

Mm-hmm. I'm a little tired.

Yeah, your daughter just said she doesn't know if, she sometimes doesn't know if you really love her. Take everything else outta the equation. Do you love your daughter?

Yeah. You know I love you. I've been loving you.

This is what I wanna do. I wanna help you not to drown. So you said you need money for a deposit for a house. I got you. I'm gonna pay, I'm gonna give you cash. I'm gonna give you money. I'm not joking. You said you need money for to get your credit and stuff together. I'm gonna pay for it. I'm gonna pay for it. I'm gonna pay for it. I'm gonna pay for it. Do you accept it?

Yes.

Good, it's yours. I promise your daughter and you can have a good relationship. Do you want a good relationship with your mom? Tell her.

I want a good relationship with you. I want to be back how we was.

Yeah, me too.

You do. Give your daughter a hug. Do you love The Karamo Show? Yes. Well, we're back for season 2. So make sure to subscribe to The Karamo Show.