On Thu, 11 Nov 1999, Scottie Bowman wrote: > Jason, > > I'm damned sure there are many, many loving > step parents who have made all the difference > in this wide world to their adopted children. > And there must be SOME children who are glad > their parents separated. (Though, at a purely > anecdotal level I can't think of any that I've > known personally .) > > And I wouldn't believe any statistics that claimed > to pay proper attention to the innumerable > variables operating in each individual family. > > However, coincidentally, & never forgetting > the crudeness inherent in all these reports, it > so happens that this very week the Children's > Society of Great Britain published their survey > of the more than 100,000 children who run away > from home each year in these islands. The rate > where one parent was not the biological parent > was THREE times greater than in traditional families. > > For what that may be worth - & bearing in mind > again, as I say, the enormous differences that will > exist between one particular family & another. > > Scottie B.c Thanks Scottie. Do the statistics also give the likelyhood of a Single-Parented child runaway? Also, do you know anything in particular about the difficulty for step-fathers in relating to their step-children? Can you recommend any good books on the topic, maybe in the self-help genre? I understand when a male gorilla takes over the alpha-male position from another he kills all the children of the previous male. Reports indicate that the step-gorillakins smell wrong to him. My source mentioned that step-fathers receive strong desires to do harm to their step-children if they don't smell compatible. Any word on this? I know this sounds pretty hoaky, but that's why I'm asking before I proliferate this madness. -j