Hello Everyone,

This is just a follow-up to my “Christopher” blog post.

I forgot that Greg and his family have their annual croquet and squash day the Saturday following Thanksgiving so people start showing up to the house about 8am…including Christopher and his dad.

I’m thinking Eva is going to be downstairs having breakfast with them but clearly I’d misjudged my child. She was in bed sound asleep. I woke her up and told her that her company was here. Eva said she Twittered Greg and told him she’d be down around 10am and went back to sleep. I knew right then I had nothing to worry about. A fast-tail little hussie would’ve gone running downstairs.

Anyway, she made it down and she and Christopher played squash and Rock Band under the watchful eye of their dads…and Clinton was glued to her side. As far watching them to ensure there wasn’t any kissie touchy crap going on, it wasn’t necessary. I mentioned this in a comment I made on the first post that Friday night, Eva sat us down and said she was too young to be alone with boys and that she'd be uncomfortable if we weren't there.

Moving on to dinner. Greg and Ed, Christopher’s dad, watched them like hawks while Maria, the mom, laughed at them. Honestly, the kids were more like friends than anything. But they like each other.

We, both sets of parents, told them that we didn’t approval of them even considering going beyond friendship because Eva is too young and uncomfortable/incapable of handling what comes with boys of any age much less a sixteen year old. We will allow them to email, call one another and visit (now that we LOVE his folks) but Eva isn’t allowed to date until she’s sixteen.

Greg and I have to admit we really like Christopher. He’s a good kid and in a lot of ways reminds me of my brother Stan: quiet, excellent relationship with his folks, funny as hell, scholarly and athletic. We expected him to be the typical coddled WASPy brat but he wasn’t. His folks bought him an Audi for his sixteen birthday (yeah Greg’s heart skipped a beat when he dropped that bomb) however the keys to the car are tied to his grades. Straight As and the keys are his…one B and the keys are taken away.

You see, when dealing with children such as ours who have been handed everything since birth, we have to marshal their exploits. It’s too easy to hand them whatever they want, but this isn’t doing them any favors. This is how they develop the entitlement attitude that can’t stand. Luckily, Ed and Maria are very similar in that area. Besides Clinton, we’re both raising one child from WASPy families. We have to be careful not to spoil them.

So far, so good. The kids turned out great and Eva and Greg are peachy.