kcab - I'm glad your DD is ok too. I'm a BIG believer in consequences. There are consequences to everything we do, good and bad, and I try to let my boys see that. And even one bad choice can change your world completely. So I'm glad your DDs at least learned something from the experience although I am sorry your younger one had to go through it.
Kriston - your DH is the kind of person I really admire. It's not so hard when you grow up with things relatively easy to make something half way decent out of yourself, but it takes so much character to be able to pull yourself up out of less than ideal circumstances. Good for him!!!
Kriston said "The power of the "permanent record" is strong if the child can believe in a future for him/herself". I think this is VERY true. And permanent records are very permanent these days with all the stuff on the internet. People are getting themselves fired/not hired because of what is out there on them. My DS10's TFK last month had a great article about that too that really seemed to hit home with him. He's mentioned 2 or 3 things about it (and he doesn't even really use the internet much at this point!)
It is hard to figure out. I guess it's like the rest of the things that go with raising kids, you kind of figure it out as you go along (with a little help from your friends!)
