Ya done good Grandma! You are a fantastic parent to your kids, and they are as well with their kids. They MUST be to have the kids want to spend time with them for dinner! Very cute couple, mature, and with a level head on their shoulders, it looks like. And respect for their parents. Gotta love it.

Thanks, everyoone, for all your nice comments! Suzanne was only 17 when she had Liz, so they are both young! She divorced Liz's father less than two years later, and I'm very proud of all she's accomplished since then. Except for blonde hair (well, mine used to be all blonde) I don't think I resemble either of them, unfortunately. I'm bigger all over, for one thing. And Suzanne inherited my mother-in-law's perfect nose (because I prayed for that when I was pregnant!). Sometimes, though, I catch a glimpse of my mother's family in Liz's face. You be the judge: Here's a picture of Suzanne and me from last year.

I agree with everyone else--wow, what a couple of beauties!! Your dgd looks beautiful in her dress and her hair is stunning. I want to mention that my dd also went with a group of girls, as did one of her sisters; my middle dd went with a "date" who was just a good friend, with a larger group of friends. They all agree that going in a group is much more fun that just a single date. One more thing that I find funny is that it's perfectly acceptable for girls to go with a group of girls, but boys absolutely will not go with a group of boys. It seems that the girls all dance together (fast songs, of course,) but boys don't.

I think no matter how young or old, kids don't really have a 'say' in who you choose to date, marry, etc. I'm an adult stepdaughter to both a stepfather (whom I get along with) and a stepmother (whom I don't get along with), and never would I have expected to have a say in who my parents chose to be with. So, while one's child doesn't have the right to choose or veto one's partner ---and maybe BECAUSE of that fact--- the parents/stepparents don't have a right to choose or veto the child's FEELINGS about that person. (They also don't have the right to choose or veto the stepparents' feelings about the stepchild, which may very well be just as negative if not more so.) If you're thinking about recoupling & blending families, it's a very, very weighty decision for EVERYONE involved. Except that the children, who are highly affected by the decision, are not involved in the decision-making process. The people who actually have the freedom and power to choose (the parents and stepparents) should choose wisely and after careful consideration and after as broad and open communication as possible. Precisely BECAUSE the aspect parents and stepparents don't have control over is anyone's feelings about it. A child DOES have the right to discuss concerns about the stepparent with the parent and/or that stepparent, but the child does not really ---as we all know--- get 'veto power' over the choice of the partner. The child can hope that the parent considers their needs, feeelings and input, but the child knows s/he is not the one in charge of the decision. A child has the right to disapprove of or dislike the stepparent (just as, is often said, the stepparent does not have to like the child or approve of everything the child does or is), but again, the child does not get say in if the stepparent stays or goes. Once the choice of partner has been made, stepparent and stepchild basically just have to deal with one another as- is. If they don't like each other, they each have many options as to how to cope (including making the decision *for themselves* to pull back from their relationship with one another), but there is a limited amount of control anyone can have over either of them in terms of the coping strategies THEY choose. If either/both the stepparent and stepchild dislike one another, basically that is their right. No one can force liking. No one can force the genuine, internal FEELINGS of admiration or respect. But every individual has the right to determine what kinds of outward BEHAVIORS they will and will not tolerate *for themselves*. A baseline level of OUTWARD RESPECTFUL BEHAVIOR is required of everyone, even if INTERNAL RESPECTFUL FEELINGS are not there. So basically, yeah, no one can force anyone else to like them, and everyone knows kids don't REALLY get to choose their parents' partners, no matter what the parent may say to the kids to make them THINK it's something they have any control over. So I think it's better to NOT even create the illusion that they actually do have a say. Instead choose wisely and take co-responsibility for your choice, and accept that others will not always like your choices, and that is acceptable for both them and you. As with so many things in life, there are things we an actually control and things we can't, and things tend to work out best for everybody when people have a clear grasp of what those things are.