Prete a Porte Parent Date Thursday, April 18, 2024 - 09:01 PM PST Topic Questions I am being made a parent. My dad and my stepmom are divorcing. They have been together 20 years now. She has been my "other mom" for most of my life. Now she is gone. That is hard and uncomfortable, but the really hard part, the needles under the fingernails part, is that they are giving me custody of my younger brother (ok half brother if you want to get technical). He is 16, a nice kid, and really bright. He is also failing out of school. How am I, a rebel from the 80's that held a GPA of 4.2 with a mohawk, going to be the disipline in his life? He writes like PG wodehouse with the blues. He can conjugate latin verbs. He quotes "The Prince" easily. But he can't pass Freshman English. The best part, the real thigh slapper, is that he says that he's not goth. He wears all black with odd amine style shirts. He reads Poe for fun. He just recommended that I read Stephen King's "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" because "its full of good stories about flights gone bad!". Yah, he's not goth, and I'm not short. Point is I'm scared. I feel the pressure. Is it possible to help him heal the scars from our mutual parents? Is it possible to fight the teen angst that he is going to have? I dont know and Im scared to find out. Can anyone give ME support in this trying time? Can anyone tell me that it will all be OK? I think I will go staple my hand to my forhead..... This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=25