Wow, mili, you sure did hijack that post, and you added nothing of value to the discussion. The number and breadth of your erroneous assumptions is staggering. It's too bad adults such as yourself(?), who are so willing to "side" with children, are incapable of constructive dialogue with adults.
Now, because I think every good turn deserves another...as for your points:
It's really none of your business why we were using a counselor. It had nothing to do with hoarding. As for participating in the therapy, again, you have no idea why a therapist is being used, to what extent the wider family is participating, nor did you stop to consider that this therapist could have just been wrong in his/her assessment. As her parent, it's entirely appropriate for me to not only open-mindedly participate in her therapy, but question when and how that therapy is progressing.
As for the purged items, some were sheets with holes, broken electronics equipment, and empty tissue boxes. It's appropriate and caring behavior for me to question, as her parent, why she could possibly have emotional attachments to those things.
My decluttering wasn't "presented as this really big deal and praised ad nauseam." (Why would you even assume such a thing?) If you must make an assumption, why don't you assume it was done in the vein of everyday cleaning, as it was, a little at a time.
Actually, giving up over half of our living space was purely for financial reasons. Moving to a much larger city, with much higher housing costs, priced us out of the market. Calling it a "lifestyle choice" without any of that background knowledge makes you sound ridiculous. Since most of her friends live in the same city, they face the same issues with regards to family housing costs and what you call lack of space.
Your assumptions betray a strong cultural bias. "Most of us see an INCREASE in private space..." If your parents provided you with a bigger living space, just because you turned the magical age of 13, you must have lived a privileged life indeed.
As for "turning someone into a hoarder," wow, are you 13 yourself? Or, are you one of those parents who wouldn't give your child his chemo because you want to "side" with his decision? Something tells me you're probably not a parent; you seem to have no understanding of the scope or experience parenting brings. It sounds to me, actually, like you're projecting your own issues about a lack of power and decision-making in your own childhood.
But, I wouldn't want to be guilty of making assumptions. My father always told me, "When you assume, you make and ass out of u and me."
All IMHO of course :)
