[gacook]

Yeah. I view my "reward" as a parent/step-parent will be seeing my children lead productive lives as adults.

The toughest part for me is trying to understand them. As a boy, I played sports, liked cars, etc (all the "guy stuff"). My step-sons...have no interest in sports, or anything else that I deem to be "guy stuff." A lot of this I attribute to them not having a father really in their lives during their formative years, but it still baffles me...I just thought it was something we were born with. Case in point, my first car was a POS, but it was mine, and I loved having a car. I bought my step-son a car last year (he was 14), and it seems like he pretty much doesn't care. I'm trying to teach him a bit about maintaining it, and even took him out to a deserted area so he could drive--and HE DIDN'T WANT TO! That blew my mind. We went to the auto paint place here in town and I let him pick out whatever color he wants to paint the car, and I'm going to do it myself, with him helping do the sanding and what not...figured it'd be a nice father/son experience and give him a deeper sense of ownership to his first car. We'll see.