Mark Arbour

Well, I think the short answer to Will's lack of sexual guidance is: incest. Seriously, If you go back to PMS, you'll see he got a lot of pointers, mostly from Stef. And that's probably one of the reasons they're not busting his ass over sleeping with Jeff.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll agree to disagree about Will. I think Elizabeth is focused on the money. She knows money is power.

I think Jeanine will not be happy. Not much she can do about. I think. Sometimes you have to let people go to make your relationship stronger. I think that's what Brad finally figured out.

Hey you! Get out of my mind! You remind me of Paya. :-) Great comments.

Brad is hard headed and stubborn but he gets there in the end

I think that your over-generalizations, your hopeless fixation with behavioralism, and this concept that parents must constantly assert their authority over their kids, were probably wonderful philosophies back in the late 1940s-mid 1950s. They are useless today. That's because raising kids with a standard playbook ignores the individual, and all kids are different. I don't think that Brad and Robbie have to say "no" to their kids at all. I think that what they try to do at a basic level is to foster the interests of their sons, and help them pursue things that stimulate them (and their minds). I'm not saying they're perfect parents (I certainly didn't write them that way), but permissiveness isn't their flaw, as I see it. I suppose they could have followed the pattern of Mr. Martin, and had children who were very respectful and docile, and voiced no real opinions or had any real disciplinary issues. There are people in the forum who think that's how children should be raised, and should behave. Kids like that grow up to be wonderful drones, afraid to voice their own opinions, to assert themselves, and to take risks. I think they make wonderful factory workers. In this case, you have bright kids, especially with Will, and the bright kids are usually the toughest to handle. They're smart enough not to buy into the bullshit, and they're insulted with the standard "because I told you so" response of martinets. I think that's the big problem that WIll has, in that he thinks he deserves better answers, and he thinks he has the right to voice an opinion, about matters that directly concern him. Brad's issue, IMHO, isn't that he didn't crack down on Will, it's that he doesn't communicate with him very well, and he hasn't been very consistent. One minute, he's spouting the "my way or the highway" storyline, while the next, he's caving when he realizes that simply won't work. If Brad had treated Will more like JP treated Brad when he was growing up (by taking him under his wing and recognizing that he was trying to develop into his own person, and by trying to foster that process along), I think that Will's jump into young adulthood would have been much smoother for all of them. As it is, i agree with you in that I think now that Will is emancipated, Brad will be forced to treat him like he should have treated him in the first place, and I think removing the control aspect from their relationship will make them much closer. What Brad will probably find out is that he'll have more influence over Will than he did before, just by asking and suggesting, rather than commanding and dictating.

Overly permissive parenting: where did you get your expertise? You are clueless.

Theres a lot of love there, and that ultimately prevents Brad and Will from totally losing it with each other.You're probably right. Things will be boring now. ;-)

Thanks. I think the key is that Will and Brad are both so strong-willed that it takes them a lot of effort and time to work through their conflicts.

There were indeed a few drafts, but it stayed pretty similar. Brad needed to figure things out, and they both needed to move beyond their anger.

I'm sorry I didn't respond to your review earlier. I think that neither Tony or Will are at a stable enough point for them to be in a full-blown relationship. I think some of the other questions were covered in the latest chapter.

I posted Chapter 64 of Paternity. That's the last of the chapters I have in the mill. Hopefully things will calm down and I can do some writing again soon.

November 20, 2000 Los Angeles, CA Will As cocky as I’d been with my dad on Friday, now that it was Monday, and we were finally here at the courthouse, I was pretty nervous. “This will work out just fine,” Burkhardt said to me confidently. “I’m not optimistic that the judge will grant you emancipation, but I think we can at least get your mother removed as a guardian.” I stared at him, totally amazed. “I thought you said this wasn’t a big deal, and that the court would go a

Happy Birthday Robert!!!

You guys have clearly never raised a high spirited teenaged male. I picture you as those crotchety guys who go to family restaurants then bitch when the kids at the next table are rowdy, or cry.

It means that Matt is warming up to Will to the point that Will's charm will actually work on Matt.

You are spot on with Darius being clueless. He's thinking of the one-year-ago Will, and it isn't connecting.

Darius isn't tuned in to how intense things have been for Will, which is why he seems like a jackass.

I thought horse racing was the "sport of kings"? I am mostly with Hermetically Sealed on Will's attitude at dinner, only he forgot "manipulative", here are all these really smart people and they can't see through Will's goading of Darius? Yes, I get the story reason for the drama and tension, but it would be nice once in a while to hear JP say, "pull in your horns William, that is enough". As to water polo and Will, it is a good mix and most water polo coaches are not like the football or the wresting coach. They are kick back beach guys. Not only is Jack Bowen (Menlo School wp coach) all that, but he teaches philosophy and is a best selling author too with books on philosophy. Menlo School like H-W, is a very different place with a faculty better than many universities. Do you have a brother? This is just sibling sniping.

I thought he was pretty funny, the way he dealt with Darius

He won't play polo. There's a reason for that. ;-)

November 12, 2000 Escorial, CA Will Charger and I were riding again. I was getting used to him, and enjoying him. When I’d watched Wade ride him, I’d been so impressed with his equestrian skills, and how he seemed to know just how to control the horse. Now that I was spending some time with Charger, who was pretty challenging, I was starting to realize that as much as the skill, it was getting to know the horse. Dad and Pop had left yesterday almost right after our argumen

Sharon is always right. So is my wife. These are things I've learned to just accept as truths.

Just to clarify, it's not like I'm melting down. I'm just busy. Life is good. I'm happy. Pretty much. But I really really really appreciate all your kind thoughts, and how you guys always rally around me personally when I get myself into a scheduling bind. Guess that's what friends do. Thanks.

I did not realize I was capable of altering the time-space continuum. Cool. I think I'll go out and do something truly evil. :-)