Replies

No, I'm serious...If you don't have children, you just don't know, and it's not an insult, it's just the truth.

I don't doubt your sincerity for a moment. I know you honestly believe what you're saying. I know you love your step-kids, but you love your own more. As my wife says, "there's a reason the first time every 350 lb. football player get his face on TV the first words out of his mouth are a diffident 'hi Mom.'"

Nevertheless, the world is full of "enabler" parents that "can't turn their back on their children." It makes very little difference to me what the "drug of choice" is; booze, dope, sex, it's all a variation on the same theme. They are all corrosive to the "life worth living," and sometimes require a "time out" for the child (even grown) to appreciate just how much it is costing to live that way.

Love is not fulfilling ones own desire for the presence of ones children. Love is caring more for them than for yourself, even to the point of denying yourself their affection if the circumstances are desperate enough to warrent it.

And it isn't any easier when there are other "parents" out there further enabling the wayward by telling them what bastards you are for not accepting their "choices."

I won't tell you about my children because that story isn't done yet, but I can tell you about myself, and trust me when I tell you my life has been immeasurably damaged because from a very early age I possessed enough verbal dexterity to mitigate damn near any sanction my parent brought to bear on me.

It was only when I went to live with the other parent (and their what I regard to be profound wisdom) that I learned just how badly I was injuring myself.

They are all corrosive to the "life worth living," and sometimes require a "time out" for the child (even grown) to appreciate just how much it is costing to live that way.

I lost my only child to carbon monoxide poisoning in 2000.

I wish he were here in any way, shape, or form.

Call me an enabler.

I didn't say there shouldn't be consequences. For instance, I can understand that Dr. Keyes doesn't want Maya working for his organization, because she doesn't embody the values his organization represents.

On the other hand, except for her sexual choices, Maya doesn't sound like a bad kid. Not every child would defer college for a year to do missionary work, and for another semester to help her father run for office. Maybe she's a bit outspoken and "over the top", but so is her father, just in defense of different causes.

I just can't imagine my parents totally cutting me off, and I can't imagine doing that to my children, either.