Re: Burning Pain

jason varsoke (jjv@caesun.msd.ray.com)
Wed, 17 Nov 1999 15:11:59 -0500 (EST)

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