My main character, a female werewolf, is the foster daughter of an older male werewolf. They lack a parent-child relationship and have more of an intergenerational, funny, vitriolic, friendship. Their backstory is that the girl was turned when she was 10 and her parents kept her in the house for three years. When she was 13, she tried to kill herself so her mother called a werewolf consultant who then came to talk to her and her parents. In the end, she went to live with him and he helped her control her werewolf instincts and she began to aid him in capturing renegade werewolves, vampires, faeries, witches, etc. since he works with the government in that field. The thing is, I sincerely doubt that two parents would willingly allow their daughter to go and live with some strange werewolf man, even if he was a government official. What is a realistic way for two parents to surrender their daughter to someone else for her own good?
If she promised she wouldn't harm herself if she lived with him. You'd have to have a good reason for her hating to live at home.
It's clear that she would be better off with him. Werewolves need another werewolf's help with controlling their inner beasts in my story. So she needs the werewolf guy. So on her side, everything is fine, she'll just miss her family. It's the parents I'm having trouble with. I can't think of something that would motivate a parent to give their child away to a near complete stranger.
I think if you are going to assume there is such a thing as werewolves, and that some can be children of human parents, who will try to contain the werewolf any which way they know how, then the external agency they surrender the child to might as well be this werewolf guy. They can't keep her locked up forever and nobody could cope if she got out without knowing how to control her instincts, so what is the next logical option? I think it works just fine as it it, it makes for an elegant cause and effect so that the main story can proceed.
They could be scared of the fact that she is part demon/animal/wolf. They could be fearful of the safety of another child. They could have a relationship with the old werewolf. they could be forced into the situation by law/religion.
I agree it's kind of sketch just giving your kid away to a strange werewolf. Maybe he has been a friend of the family for a long time? The dad's co-worker way back when, or maybe even an uncle or cousin or something? I guess what I'm suggesting is that one way to fix this would be to make it so the parents already have a strong relationship with him. Maybe one of them doesn't really trust him, but as others have suggested maybe they agree it's the best thing for her right now. To me, the "we're a happy family despite you being a werewolf" concept is almost harder to believe than your question, however. You could probably pull it off, but I think it would be more interesting if a few things were changed. Wouldn't being locked up all the time cause her to hate her parents? Wouldn't her being a werewolf scare them, even though they're still trying to love her? Wouldn't the situation cause arguments between her parents as far as what they feel is the best way to help her? Maybe she gets fed up with it and finally runs away. Maybe she tells the official that she's an orphan, and meanwhile her parents are on the lookout for her. Maybe the father wants to shoot her because he thinks she's only going to harm others and herself, even though in the end he can't. That makes an interesting parent/daughter conflict that would need to be resolved toward the end of the story.
Does it have to be 100% surrender?, it could be a last resort, as in they know its for the best. She has become something different no longer completely human, she needs help to control urges and suppress rages and feelings, it might be that this is their last hope to keep the small part of their daughter alive and "under control". The old tag if you love someone let them go sill works (i think). And it doesnt have to be perminant. Almost like adolesants but more extreme, changes. A charmomng understanding wolf would be able coax the parents. (it an idea )
I think that you need to go further back, to why they kept her in the house for three years. You're saying that they never let her out, not for school, not for medical care, not for exercise, not for anything at all? And in three years she never managed to escape? That suggests that they'd have to do more than lock her in the house - they'd essentially have to create a prison cell for her. And what would they do as the years went by - keep her a prisoner for the rest of her life? That's very, very extreme - I'd be surprised that they didn't see imprisoning their daughter as severe enough to call that werewolf consultant much earlier, long before she tried to kill herself.
c'mon, there's nothing 'normal' about werewolf parents in the first place, so anything you want them to do can be considered normal for werewolves! trying to assign normal human parent emotions/motives/etc. to mythical creatures is just plain silly, isn't it?
I assumed that we were talking about regular vanilla human parents, and their human daughter was bitten by a werewolf? Now I'd like clarification from the OP.
Basically the premise is that after she was turned, she was pulled out of school and was home schooled, and they built a cell of sorts in the basement in locked her in on every full moon. She doesn't hate her parents, but she suffers from this idea that they acted out of fear and not love even into adulthood because she never talks about it with them. She tries to kill herself and that's what gets her mother to call someone in to help her. I thought about making the werewolf guy an old friend of the mothers but then it's an issue of why they haven't called him in sooner. I think I'll just make him a last resort and his official status as a government official will be enough reason for them to hand their daughter over.
I'm also curious about how they've kept the kid locked up for three years. It has been done in reality though, of course -- even with non werewolf children. I don't see it as so inconceivable that they give the kid away, though. I knew a lady who gave her kids up for adoption because she was just too depressed to be a parent. They were like, ten and twelve.
children have been sent to boarding schools because it would benefit the child at the emotional cost of the parent. If this is presented this way with the child having regular (irregular) visits to parents that she knows love her enough to send her for training that they can't give her it would add a complexity to the story that should be realistic in the world that you are creating.
Yes, but she never ever leaves the house even in between full moons? That seems pretty extreme, to the point of abusive - criminally abusive. That's not to say that your parent characters can't be abusive, but I think it's important to know how they're depicted.
I sent my son to live with my ex-husband for a year because it was the best thing for my son due to the different implementations of ADA across school districts. That said, you need to identify how the parents feel and build your case from that. Love - I don't want my daughter to die and *obviously* I'm not doing it right.....I understand I need to sign a release, but I'm not abandoning my child. I am *FOSTERING* her. Fear - I can't deal with this situation. I love my daughter but I don't want to be a werewolf nor do I want her biting anyone of my neighbors. Please help. Oh, she has to live with you? Can I see her on non-full-moon weekends or something? Shame - How *could* I let my daughter become a werewolf. I know it can't be cured, but if you can teach her how to behave normally, i will *pay* you. etc.
I agree with funkybassmannick, I think generally parents in that situation would be under incredible emotional pressure and ready to take almost any way out that lets them have some peace of mind and get on with their lives, perhaps even to the extent of contemplating euthanasia. A (presumably quite personable) government official who promises to give her a better quality of life would be practically a godsend, in my opinion. If they were especially protective they might demand periodic visits so they could make sure their daughter was being taken care of properly and not abused, but I think there's plenty of perfectly nice couples that would be grateful for the opportunity to wash their hands of the situation entirely, although they might suffer from guilt about it later.
If they themselves could not control her outbursts, or they couldn't keep her from harming herself. So pretty much why they called the werewolf consultant in the first place.
