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My eldest step-daughter Janie had a tendency to take in every stray; human and otherwise. At one point Julia and I were putting-up half a dozen kids who'd been abandoned to the streets.

But among her friends was a girl who wasn't homeless and was a bad influence. Hannah usually stayed with Janie to get away from her Mother's freak-outs. Her Mother was a former wild-child who feared the worst from Hannah; pretty much providing the formula which guaranteed that the next generation would do no better than the last.

Hannah was the leader in egging on others to get in trouble. And I'm pretty sure that she "borrowed" some stuff which never turned up again.

Anyhow, just about as soon as Janie turned 18, she decided almost overnight to pick-up her GED, dropped Hannah and decided to spend more quality time with her parents and kid-sis.

Julia told me that this incarnation of her eldest might be new to me, but had last been seen at age 11. ( A few years before Dante came along.)

Hannah may have allowed Janie to rebel by proxy. But once Janie's consent to events in her life ( including her schooling ) was no longer nullified by the law, she began to make wiser choices.

Amazing how removing choice from kids doesn't improve their ability to choose, eh?

Dante