[AnnieBL]

I well remember my step daughter's teenage years. Almost mercifully she announced on her 16th birthday that school must no longer be allowed to get in the way of horses and she wasn't going back there. J said 'not in this house' and she walked straight out and down the road to a world class equestrian facility run by a retired German industrialist, since when she has supported herself without any essential help from us and indeed prospered considerably. Adolescent temperament was hard enough to cope with - adolescent temperament plus driving ambition was beyond us. Even the industrialist complained that she gave him a hard time. J just said 'Join the club'. My mother was long convinced that she was my daughter, now I'm sorry she wasn't. But I sure hope that I'm going to behave better during my second puberty than she did during hers.