Bette: But you know we cannot pencil them in until they communicate that to us, right?

Daniel:  Right. Hopefully they will do that soon.

Tina: Are there any more questions? Are you still angry Daniel?

Daniel: No, I’m fine. I’m sorry I got angry about this. I should have known there was a reason you couldn’t invite the Wilkins family to Scotland. Thanks for talking to me about it.

Bette: We love you, Daniel. And we don’t expect you to understand every decision we make instantaneously. But we do expect you to ask and not demand the answer and we expect that this type of conversation will take place in private and not over the phone or via text message. Do you understand that?

Daniel: Yeah, I understand.

Tina: Why don’t you give us a hug and then go for a swim. If you want to talk more, we can talk after dinner. We need to go get started with dinner.

Daniel: Thank you for asking the Wilkins to Yellowstone. I think that is going to be a really cool trip. And if both Joey and John David are there, it’s even going to be better.

Bette:  We are excited about it too. It will be a first for us as well.

Daniel hugged Tina and then Bette. He was warm and affectionate and seemed relaxed. He smiled and hurried out the door.

Bette: Well? What do you think?

Tina:  You didn’t yell at him. What happened?

Bette:  I couldn’t do it unless he raised his voice at us. And that never happened. My purpose in yelling would be to give him a taste of what we were experiencing. I wanted to put an end to that behavior once and for all. But since it didn’t happen, there was no reason to do that. But if it happens in the future, I or we can still use it.

Tina: I think that was a brilliant idea about having him go somewhere private and yell and scream until he gets out all of this anger. I wish I had done that when I was going through puberty.

Bette: I don’t want him to do like I did and just push it away until he just explodes. He has to have a way to release the pressure and the emotion. And he needs not to do it in a hurtful way to others or to himself.