I don't know if I am about to reveal the outcome of the show to anyone who didn't see it in it's entirety,but I guess it really doesn't matter since everyone seems pretty disinterested anyway. I watched the whole show and I have a whole new perspective on this woman now.I originally felt like everyone else,that she was selfish,in it for the money,etc.I think Dr.Phil did make an impression on her and made her think a little farther into the future than what she has been.He concluded that she lives in a fantasy world,has little concept of the real world and is immature in her thinking and problem solving skills.Because I have some family members who have the same problem,I can fully understand it.It's not their fault and nothing anyone can do can change it.Their minds just don't work in the same way that some other people's minds work! She did finally admit to Dr. Phil that she made a mistake by becoming pregnant again and by having all 6 embryos implanted.I do understand her thinking about implanting all 6.she thought it would result in only one or maybe two and she didn't want to "kill" (which in her eyes is what it would have been) the other embryos.Yes,she could have kept the other embryos frozen indefinitely,but in her mind she was "done having babies" and using all the embryos made it "final".At the end of the show Dr. Phil said that she called him after she came home from the hospital that evening and told him that she had realized that the nurses had been taking care of her babies and that she hadn't really thought ahead to what it would actually be like when she got them all home.She said also that she realized that she hadn't cried in months,and that she had been crying since she got home.She also sent him a multiple page list of things that had to be in place before the hospital would allow her to bring those babies home and she was very concerned about that.Regardless of what we think about this woman,those babies are here and she will need help to care for them and her other children.As the old saying goes,lets not throw out the baby with the bathwater (no pun intended). Also remember that there are people out there who will try to profit from all of this.I don't put much stock in "they say". JMHO

I found the comment "you can't reason with a child that age" very interesting. Parenting books all tell you to reason with children. Unfortunately these pop psychologists forgot their child development and the FACTS that brain development does not enable reasoning until well into school age!! What Linda is going to learn the hard way, if she doesn't get to the parenting/authority ability to say "enough, go to your room" and have the child comply, when he is 13 this will not be cute. How a relationship plays out when they are young tells much about how it will work when they are older. Look out world another out of control teen is on the way!!

liesbeth, Stockholm Syndrome is so named after a bank robbery that occured in Stockholm Sweden, in which the bank employees were held hostage and placed in mortal fear of their lives for six days. When finally freed, instead of being grateful for their salvation, they not only protected and defended their captors, but identified with them and had become so emotionally attached, that even long afterwards, voluntarily stood by their former abusers, pleading their case to gain public sympathy through the press, raising money for their legal defense, supporting them through the trial and subsequent jail sentences and one woman even ended up marrying one of them. This phenomenon has been noted many times, and is believed to be a psychological response that arises in a victim who is lead to believe their very survival depends on "bonding" with their abuser. It is an automatic defense mechanism that goes way back to their first days of birth, similar to the bond infants form with their parents, which can subsequently be artificially developed, manipulated and intensified through the use of psychological "brainwashing" techniques, such as those employed by religious "cults", to strip their followers from their "freedom of choice", rendering them unable to make their own decisions, to keep them dependent on their cult leaders, for the purpose of turning them into their very own little "puppets". If anyone can't see yet just how abusive, manipulative, and psychologically damaging this is to proper development and well being of a child, I'll be glad to elaborate further, but I have to go visit a client right now. I'm not really sure what advice, if any I can give you liesbeth, my husband and I are actually seeing a therapist right now, who specializes in "cult deprogramming", partially to see if there's anything we can do to stop the stalking and harrassment from his nutzoid BM without having to completely remove ourselves from the lives of his children and family who she's managed to recruit, but also for the sake of his daughters, especially since his oldest daughter already HAD a complete and total nervous breakdown, to the point where she became completely nonfunctional. Only her whackjob of a mother has been doing this to her, not as a child, but after she became a married adult with the responsibility of for raising 3 toddler babies. And before anyone here even attempts to try to defend this BM's actions, this isn't MY opinion, it is the opinion of the licensed, professional psychiatrist, who referred us to our current therapist because it was beyond his field of expertise. take care,

tos~ How she and her best friends have maintained their friendship, despite the miles, is a source of amazement to all of us. They have a very special relationship and they are all so close. I was just speaking to one of the other mothers last pm, and we both continue to marvel at the strength of their bond. They make it a point to spend lots of time together whenever they can (when she's here for visits). My stepson is best friends with the 2 older brothers in the families, and we adults are friendly as well...have occasional cookouts, pool parties, etc. Although, I think the kids friendship has fostered the adult/family gatherings.... As far as her friends in NC...the majority of her non-school time is spent in dance class, so she is friendly with the girls she dances with. But she says that she really doesn't have any super-close school friends that she "hangs out with", etc. She rarely has sleepovers or talks of anything she does with other kids there. Mostly she is at the dance studio...she's a very accomplished dancer. Lack of good friends there was actually one of the things she discussed when she brought up the idea of coming here for high school. So tos, it's your turn....are you a step-parent? Are you a NCP? What would you have told your daughter in the "hypothetical" situation I posted?...seriously WWYD? Like you, I have no intention of EVER divorcing, but I can "imagine" what I'd do if I were faced with a similar situation....so, please, tell us what you'd say. For the record, my DH fought the move in court. Michigan is a no-fault divorce state, and spousal infidelity has NO bearing on custody, whatsoever. Michigan is VERY pro-mom, despite the fact the courts say they have no "gender bias". Essentially, the only time a mother does not win custody is if she can be deemed "unfit", due to drugs or extreme circumstances. Even homeless mothers win custody here...since we have many women/children shelters, etc. It's really disturbing that the courts do not really have the best interest of the child as their main focus. At the time of his ex-wife's affair, the children were ages 1 & 4. Since they were babies (toddler) he felt that the kids should stay in their home, and with his work schedule at the time, it just made more sense for her to stay in the house. He got an apartment closeby with the understanding that it would be temporary while they "worked on it". Obviously, the outcome was different than the plan. Trust me, if he could have changed the outcome of the custody situation, he would have. Initially, they had joint custody, 50/50 split. When she decided to move, she filed for sole physical, joint legal. He fought it and lost. The judge thought that her soon-to-be new husbands job promotion was more important than children having close, easy access to both parents. That was the sole deciding factor...her husbands increased income. So they can use spouse income to decided custody, but they won't use it to calculate child support...go figure...great court system.