The less than enthusiastic relationship response

I take it as a bad sign when you enter into a Facebook-confirmed relationship, and people respond less than enthusiastically.  It's Julia's teacher who entered into this relationship.  Frankly, I knew something along those lines was coming because she has been posting a lot about something she needed to pursue.  I quizzed her, thinking at first that she meant moving somewhere else, but that wasn't it.  So I presumed it was a guy, especially when she was cagey about whether or not it would happen.  She is a really smart young lady, and she has the best disposition to work with young kids. 

Given the less than enthusiastic responses from her family, I had to check out this guy (concern for teacher/nosiness/insomnia, you pick the motive).  He's an "oh my" just based on his photos alone, and that's not an "oh my, what have I been missing" kind of oh my.  That's an "oh my, you might be off the deep end" oh my.  Plus he has baggage: a kid.  It says he lives in IL, so I'm not sure if this is a long distance thing or not.  I hope it's a very long distance thing.  I want her to be happy, but...oh my.  I can't wait to talk with her after the buzz dies down.

I dread the day that Julia brings home an "oh my" type of guy.  First, I will have to give the husband an IV drip of Xanax.  Then I'll hook myself up to the IV drip.  Perhaps then I will ground her for five years because she didn't make her bed.  That's completely logical, right?  :)

No, really, that's got to be the hardest part to being a parent.  You don't want to see your kids make mistakes, but you know they have to make mistakes to learn.  You wish they could just learn through your experiences, but unfortunately they need to experience those things themselves in order to figure it out for themselves.   And that's why the Love & Logic program makes sense.  The program empowers kids to make their own decisions and then reap the consequences for those decisions early in life.  The theory being that the younger you are, the cheaper the consequences are & the more powerful the learning experience.  However, I will choose to ignore the fact that some people I know keep making the same horrible choices over and over and over again even as adults.