Meet Jared

(Jared's sections were first written in 2008 and appear here as originally written)

My name is Jared Allen and I’ve been asked to help write this because in my 14 years of life I’ve gone through three dads and many boyfriends of my mom’s not to mention seeing and hearing a heck of a lot of stuff. My real dad Mike lives in North Carolina (I'm in Colorado) and we have an on again off again relationship. He’s of the “kids are to be seen and not heard” belief. My first step-dad Darren is my six-year-old sister’s dad and really just a kid himself, at 32. We did share the same interests so we did bond very well. He bought me a lot of stuff and it kinda felt like he was trying to buy my love but I don’t think he knows a lot about giving a young boy love because his dad left and he also had a step father who was a big jerk. And last but not lease is my current step-dad Dave. Unfortunately by the time he became my step-dad I was pretty much done with dads or guys that came around with my mom. I didn’t want another one because I’d had too many already that had let me down and just kinda left scars. The way I think of the whole situation is it's like fresh new concrete and every guy stuck their hand in that fresh new concrete until that wet concrete hardened and there’s no way any other guy could get through. But over the last seven years we have grown to have a pretty normal step-dad/step-son relationship. We have more of a friendship than a father/son deal, which is perfect for me since the “dad” thing has been such a failure in my life. Bit by bit I’m squeezing him in some where in my concrete heart. I wanted to help with this book because I’d like other dad’s or other teens like me to see what I went through and maybe help them to make better choices than the dads in my life did. I also want them to see how their actions and choices affect their son’s lives, and ripple through and through. How maybe the hurt and heartache can be avoided.