Kathryn's back! Yahooo! I will notify the possee they can stop looking and I am glad I didn't pay the ransome!

About the son thing. After paying TWICE for my youngest to go to college, only to have him drop out TWICE, I finally realized two things:

1) You can lead a horse to water...but you can't make him drink.
2) He has to make the commitments for and to his life. I can't do it for him.

So...in order to save what hair I had left, I sat him down and told him if he decided to go back to college, he would have to get a part time job and pay for it. I was done. He didn't take me serious until he found out (in the working world) that you don't get very far without that piece of paper. He asked me to pay for him to go back. I gently said, "I'm sorry son. I have. I can't anymore." That was two years ago.

He is struggling now, learning a good trade, but struggling. HE REMINDS me of that conversation and keeps telling me how right I was. How he wished he had stayed in school...how..this that and the other. I listen, but don't give in. I want him to want it so badly, HE goes after it. I wanted him to fall and learn to get back up. In other words, I let go. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, but I can already see bits and pieces of maturity shining through.

He may never go back to school (lacks about a year and a half) but he HAS learned a valuable lesson. As I told him, "I am here for listening, loving, hugs, and moral support...but you are a man, my son." Sometimes...you have to love them enough, to turn away. Just my thoughts.