Tim Blair

There's a dark, secret place in my heart that wishes these two assholes would actually accede to power - regardless of the terrible harm it would do to our country and the world.

"...should treat stepchildren like pets" indeed.

``I thought, `I love kids, kids love me, I'll be fine.' Baloney,'' Teresa said. ``You have to treat stepchildren like pets. You're nice to them but you don't get too close or they chew you up. Well, I did it the other way.''

Heh. I'm sure that went over well with the kids to compare them to pets. Maybe the Licorice story is realy a cover up from when the family "eliminated" an unwanted kid.

I can see the putative First Lady's new book on child-rearing, "It takes a Kennel."

If it weren't for that pesky War on Terrorism-thing, I'd vote for her husband just for the entertainment value of having Teresa in the White House.

Treat your step-children like pets? As a step-child myself, I would just like to say WHAT A @#$%ING BITCH.

Great. Now we're resorting to news by gossip columnists?

I understand what Teresa Heinz was saying. She had an unfortunate way of phrasing it, that's for sure, but anyone who's lived in a blended household knows that the stepparent cannot jump in and become a parent right away- not in most circumstances at least. There does have to be a period of polite distance until the relationship warms. That doesn't always happen, and many times the kids resent the intrusion of a stepmother or father.

Bet Teresa can explain tribal sovereignty better than Bush, though.

Yo, Scout!

I had a stepmother and step-sister myself, and as an adult I became a stepfather. You're right, being a step-parent is hard.

You do not treat your step-children like pets. You treat them like your own children, or they will never accept you. It still takes time for acceptance, love, and bonding if you treat them like children, and it'll never happen any other way.

So I think Teresa is full of crap. You are only part way there; either that, or you are just an apologist for her.

You really have to love this woman!

no i dont..


And really, what more can you ask in a first lady?

dignity?

Blue-Blood gossip...yuck.
I suspect THK treats most every one like animals.

"...blended household..."

(Barf.)

It's a tribal sovereignty thingie Andrea

'lived in a blended household ' a household that's been through a blender? Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!

"You have to treat stepchildren like pets. You're nice to them but you don't get too close or they chew you up."

What's this "don't get too close" bit? In our household our pets ARE children. They are furry/purry siblings to our human child and we hold them close... how else could we comb and de-flea them? Shame on Teresa's politics of species segregation. The mammalian politics in our family are inclusive; we put bi-peds and quads on equal footing.

I once made my stepson (who I never think of as anything but #1 Son) sit on the floor of a Pizza Hut to eat because he was acting like a little animal. Amazing how fast it improved his table manners.

Yo Jeff-

guess every family is different. I've lived in a blended family (why some of you find it necessary to jab at every little thing is beyond me. what term would you use?)and the kids were a bit older...the stepfather had to become friends with the kids first and gain their trust. They were teens by then, so perhaps that's the difference. It would have been awful if he had come into the family and immediately jumped into being Dad. Espeically since the kids still visited their father.

Wish some of you could see how venomous your words are. There's no need for that. We're not combatants.

Godwin's Law has a corollary, The comment thread ends when the first person refers to their pets as their "fur-babies".

I got a law, don't make me use it!

Joe G,

Who said "fur-babies"? Our cats happen to be "fur-grown-ups". Alas, they grow up too soon these days.

Scott, when anyone equate children with pets, I get my dander up. Children are people that are part of your family. Pets may be part of the family (this was so in my family), but they are not the priority, raising children. You clearly understand this.

Teresa Heinz does not seem to; perhaps this is part of being multi-lingual, or perhaps it's just her own upbringing; I can't say which. In either case, I disagree with her.

As far as "venomous".....looking back at the posts, yes, I was. So what? Teresa is subjugating stepchildren into the role of pets, surely a demeaning act. This person wants her husband to be President of the United States. That would make her First Lady. If she wants the role, she needs to do a better audition.