The Strawberry Letter: I'm Emotionally Drained

Subject: I am emotionally drained

Dear Steve and Shirley, I’m a 42 year old single mother of a son that is 20 years old. My son’s girlfriend just had a baby that is fair-skinned and they both are chocolate. This girl is 21 and a dancer at a bar across town. She says she’s not a stripper but that’s all she is. My son is afraid to ask this girl for a paternity test, so I did. When my son went to visit the baby, she jumped on him and then called me and said if I keep putting my son up to this foolishness, I would be next. I called her mother, who happens to go to church with me, and I told her that her daughter is disrespectful. She was not happy about the phone call and asked if we can talk in person so I invited her over. She pulled up and ran to my door and yelled for me to come outside. She jumped on me when I got in the front yard. I’m not a fighter, so we rolled around in the yard while I kept begging her to stop pulling my hair. My neighbor broke us up and I ran inside. I called my son and he called his girlfriend on a 3 way and she said that I deserved to be beat up. I reported the incident to the police and they wouldn’t come out to do a report because it was between my son and his girlfriend. I just don’t want my son to be caught up with a baby that isn’t his. I told my son that we’ll just get the baby one day and do the paternity test ourselves. Now it’s like my son is turning against me and telling me to stay out of his business. I got beat up for him and this is how he repays me? It’s emotionally draining and I only want what’s best for him. Now he’s planning to move in with this abusive woman and ruin his life. Am I supposed to step aside and let this girl and her mother make a fool out of my son? What can I do to shake some sense into him?