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Post by greer on Apr 11, 2011 19:34:24 GMT -5
Patrick probably still had parental rights and could have threatened her with legal action if she refused to let them go.
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Post by sparklymouse on Apr 11, 2011 22:01:39 GMT -5
^Wouldn't that take some time to sort out, though? The wedding was pretty soon after he called with the invite, and I highly doubt he would postpone it so that he could sue Elizabeth.
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Post by wiggir13 on Apr 11, 2011 22:05:18 GMT -5
I'm glad someone else had issue with this. I seriously couldn't believe that after all those years of nothing finally this guy decides he wants to see some of his kids. I felt so bad for all of them. Talk emotional upheaval. They probably had finally come to terms with their dad not being in their life only for him to step in again. I really struggled through reading it.
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Post by wiggir13 on Apr 11, 2011 22:07:24 GMT -5
Patrick probably still had parental rights and could have threatened her with legal action if she refused to let them go. oh and I'm pretty sure that the years of neglect and unpaid child support probably would not have made any judge grant him anything. Sorry I really have an issue with deadbeat parents. If you don't want a kid then don't have one! (that's my philosophy anyway - I don't want kids so I've got some cats)
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Post by zoar3 on Apr 11, 2011 22:07:41 GMT -5
^Also, what court would grant him that right win anyway? One thing I've never understood is did Patrick literally walked out on his family one day, no notice, no thing, just up and fled? I know every blue moon he'd call or send a card (we don't know how soon after his abandoment that began). In general, wouldn't Edie have had the brain and/or desire to make legally certain he never came after the kids? Apparently he didn't care about them!
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Post by wiggir13 on Apr 11, 2011 22:11:17 GMT -5
I guess it is out of sight out of mind that you actually need to take action? A friend of mine got pregnant under some shady circumstances and the guy was out of the picture. She never took legal action because she figured he did care then 4 years later he shows up and tries to get custody. Since she never took any legal action for anything including child support they now share custody and she is miserable (I'm not saying it isn't good for the kid to have both parents - but come on dude where were you for 4 years!).
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Post by greer on Apr 12, 2011 1:18:31 GMT -5
I never got the impression that he was abusive or anything. It's not like it be dangerous in any way for the older kids to go see him if they wanted to. And did Elizabeth ever go after him for unpaid child support or anything?
It never crossed my mind that Elizabeth shouldn't have allowed Kristy, Sam, and Charlie to go. They are old enough to decide for themselves what they want to do. I mean, yeah, Patrick's a total jerk, but they should be allowed to see their biological father if they want to.
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Post by greer on Apr 12, 2011 1:20:41 GMT -5
^Also, what court would grant him that right win anyway? One thing I've never understood is did Patrick literally walked out on his family one day, no notice, no thing, just up and fled? I know every blue moon he'd call or send a card (we don't know how soon after his abandoment that began). In general, wouldn't Edie have had the brain and/or desire to make legally certain he never came after the kids? Apparently he didn't care about them! I don't think courts decide things based on how nice of a person you are. And I think Patrick made it pretty clear that being saddled with four kids wasn't something he was interested in.
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lilafowler
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,163
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Post by lilafowler on Apr 12, 2011 9:18:50 GMT -5
I agree with this; the only flaws of Patrick's we've seen are that he is a huge flake who is also inconsiderate. There are worse parents (even in the sugarcoated BSC universe!) and I think Elizabeth taking the decision out of her teenaged children's hands would have been unreasonable. If Patrick had invited David Michael and Elizabeth didn't allow him to go, then I'd say she was within her rights, even though I wouldn't think that was a good idea either.
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Post by zoar3 on Apr 12, 2011 11:10:18 GMT -5
I definitely think they should be able to see Patrick if they wanted to. My concern was (and of course due to the time warp and lack of info we don't know this) just how much contact they had had with him in recent years. If he up and left when Kristy was 5 or 6 and didn't "call" for a couple years, write for another one thereafter. And then 4 or 5 years after is magically back in Stoneybrook and wants to secretly visit Kristy (I don't remember if this was mentioned in the FF book). Again, it depends on the contact. I agree, Lila about David Michael, just think he should have been asked.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Apr 12, 2011 13:57:15 GMT -5
I agree with greer that they all had pretty nice, "normal" lives with relatively close knit families and were financially okay.
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Post by laylaandmixup13 on Sept 30, 2011 17:13:25 GMT -5
I would actually say Kristy but maybe that is because I can relate to her the most. I would say Shannon had it the easiest then maybe Jessi. The racism isn't REALLY that prevalent.
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lee1982
New To Stoneybrook
Lee
Posts: 44
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Post by lee1982 on Oct 3, 2011 4:54:17 GMT -5
I would say Mary Anne followed very closely by Abby.
I think Losing your birth mother and growing up with a strict dad, then moving out of your childhood home after your dad remarries only to have that house burn down in a fire and losing everything is alot to deal with at 13 years old.
Abby I feel bad for but her asthma wasn't that big of an issue in the books except a few times, and she had it all under control. Though losing your dad at 9 and moving someplace new and not having your mom around is really hard as well.
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Post by bookwormv1 on Nov 14, 2011 2:56:48 GMT -5
I think Abby probably had it the worst but I think Claudia had it pretty tough too. The others (apart from Abby) all had relatively close families and all felt secure in their families but Claudia, while she had loving parents, felt misunderstood and dumb next to her family of scholars. The others had people to talk things over with so that they could understand things that happened and although we do see Claudia talk to her parents about things like child abuse and racism respectively, she lost her 'support beam' when she lost Mimi and a 'support beam' is difficult to replace. I din't hink she had it the worst but definately tough.
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Post by sparklymouse on Jan 21, 2012 19:07:49 GMT -5
I still pick Stacey for the health reasons. Ever watch True Life on MTV? It's a documentary series. Well, they just had an episode following 3 people with diabetes. There may be improvements in treatments since BSC was written, but it still looks like a pretty crappy disease to live with. One girl was diagnosed with Type 1 after giving birth and *yep* had to learn how to give herself insulin shots 2-3 times a day. Another girl had like $20,000 in medical debt and a malfunctioning insulin pump that she couldn't really afford to replace. Then there was the college binge drinker guy who brought a survival bag of vodka, regular Mountain Dew (for when his blood sugar dropped) and his insulin pump to all of his parties.
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