<p>Me too…when Max’s friend’s parents were describing his special needs and again when Zeke told Crosby about his medical issue.</p>
<p>Sent from my MB860 using CC App</p>
<p>I felt sorry for Drew. and then the scenes for next week make it appear that Drew is going to become depressed or something.</p>
<p>“Micah’s never had a friend before.” Pass the kleenex</p>
<p>Youdon’tsay- I grabbed tissues, too!</p>
<p>Tears here as well, but one thing continues to tick me off - Sarah and her self-absorbed behavior. How can she not have thought of how this decision would affect Amber and Drew and how has she not been in touch with Amber other than to send flowers in last week’s episode? When she called Seth and talked to him, but said she hadn’t talked to Amber about her decision, it made me truly mad at her. How could she be so naive to think this wouldn’t have gotten back to Amber from Drew? They have written her to be mom who was reasonably supportive and interested in her kids up to this point and now her behavior is so disinterested that it’s no wonder Drew feels the way he does. That was a great performance from the actor playing Drew, IMO. Also, I loved how Christina stepped up to rescue Amber.</p>
<p>I really like the show for the most part. I thought the actor playing Drew was great last night. I, too, am quite annoyed with Sarah. Perhaps her self absorption has something to do with previously being married to an addict (need to self preserve?), but it does not make her a good mom. Both her kids are in rough places and she is not getting it. The Zoe story line is hard for me. Is being that entwined with a birth mother, even in an open adoption, realistic? The previews for next week look heartbreaking. I am enjoying the Zeke story line. Reminds me of so many real life situations with older parents. I never expected to appreciate Dax Shephard’s work, but I do! I think the mom respecting her husband’s feelings about not sharing all the details of his health was great. The Max friendship stuff tugs at my heart. I really believe that part of the show and feel for the characters.</p>
<p>I think Sarah knows what she’s doing is stupid and she doesn’t want to talk to the kids because she feels guilty about her selfish choice and somehow thinks that if she ignores it it will go away and all will be OK.</p>
<p>Yes, glad Aunt Christina went charging in there. I was a little surprised that Haddie told her. But now we know the age difference is nine years.</p>
<p>I think part of what made me cry were the scenes for next week. That Zoe. :(</p>
<p>I’m going to watch again this morning because I was distracted last night. I kept switching between Parenthood and the Frontline about Chicago gang violence.</p>
<p>Watched again and cried again. But it’s not Max and Micah that get to me. It’s definitely Drew and how sensitive he is and how he still thinks him mom and dad will get back together. So sweet. I have a junior son right now, so that’s where I identify.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone about Sarah. Do you think Zoe is going to keep the baby? The preview shows her disappearing, but I thought it possible she’ll just leave without saying good-bye. I hope they don’t go for a storyline where she changes her mind at the last minute.</p>
<p>There are plenty of things that are stupid about the Sarah baby plan, but I’m not certain upsetting Drew is one of them. I agree that the Drew scenes last night were great, and it was great that the adults didn’t have the magic spell to make him feel better. (“I guess I’m not the teen whisperer I thought I was.”) But fundamentally his reaction was teenage-irrational, totally self-centered, and not worthy of respect. (The reaction, not the boy. The boy IS worthy of respect, but not to the point of indulging his fantasies of his parents reuniting or his discomfort at seeing his mother with a younger boyfriend.)</p>
<p>The Amber thing jumped the shark. Nothing about it was believable – the trip, the tryst, Haddie ratting her out, Kristina going to the rescue, and Amber letting Kristina do that without flying into a rage. It was a stupid storyline when it first emerged, and it has mainly gotten stupider with each passing week. It basically wrecked what was otherwise an excellent episode for me.</p>
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<p>I haven’t watched this show since about the third episode of the first season. But I flipped on the TV waiting for the news to start…saw it from the driveway basketball on. “He’s never had a friend.” Yes - as the mother of an Aspie who at that age had exactly two friends - that made me cry.</p>
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<p>Yes, a former colleague of mine and his wife did an open, private adoption. The bio mom was single and already had a little girl about 2 or 3. They BOTH lived in the “converted into an apartment” garage of the adopting parents’ home for over six months. They BOTH ate all their dinners with the adopting parents during that time.The couple bought all their other groceries during that time. </p>
<p>The fact that she already had a child was the reason they chose her. To them, the fact that she already had one normal, healthy child increased the odds she’d have another normal, healthy child. They also felt that when she made the decision to give up the second child because she decided she just could not cope with another child as a single mom, she had a better idea of just what she was doing than the younger girls who were pregnant for the first time. I thought it was bizarre, but my former colleague said that they felt better because the living arrangements made them feel confident that she wasn’t smoking, using drugs or alcohol, eating junk food, etc. during her pregnancy. </p>
<p>In a way, I thought it was also the birth mom’s way of getting additional “money” for her child without breaking the law. (My former colleague is an attorney.) For six months, she lived rent free, paid nothing for food, and had all her utilities bill paid.</p>
<p>But later, after the birth, she told them she had gone for the arrangement because she too felt that during that six months she’d be able to figure out if there was domestic violence in their marriage, if they got drunk or high a lot, if their marriage was on the rocks, etc. She wanted to feel confident that her baby was getting a good home. She didn’t think she could do that after a half hour or hour conversation.</p>
<p>It wasn’t the case here, but remember that a lot of teenage moms have been kicked out by their families and have no place to live.</p>
<p>I thought that Sarah was acting very much in character. She is self absorbed and immature. I think she loves what’s his name and wants a do-over with him. She’s thinking that because she loves her kids, and they lover her, that they will want what she wants.</p>
<p>Between the show & the previews, my DH commented, they are all so weak.</p>
<p>I totally get the baby obsession and trying to endure the 9 months, knowing that it is not real until it’s over. I get how Julia feels, but as an attorney, you would think she would be guided more by reason than emotion, in her actions. It’s obvious she wants the best for Zoe, but her constant interjection seems very risky. And yet, she really is trying to make a difference for her, as the GED thing proves out. I, too, hope that the empty bed doesn’t mean Zoe changed her mind about the baby.</p>
<p>The Zeke- Crosby thing was well handled.</p>
<p>Sarah is so self-absorbed and immature, as some one said many posts back, to even think about having a baby with a BF (not husband) and while she does not have a reliable job and her own place, with her & her kids being supported by her parents, how irresponsible. I suppose she’d like a chance to try it again, but I can see Drew’s point. It is a stereotype, the divorce, the new family, the chance to correct your mistakes, and the neglected first family, I can see why Drew would fear that. That actor did a great job.</p>
<p>The stupid Amber-Bob storyline was bad, and I am glad Kristina rescued her from her youthful indiscretion, but odd that she (K) did not ream out Bob more? Amazing that Haddie told her, but smart. Sad that one more time Amber looks like the screw up kid 
I want her to do well finally.</p>
<p>The Jasmine “I want you back” preview made me crazy, how many chances has she had and only when she has got a serious SO who wants to buy a house for them and when Crosby has moved on to a new person, only now can she figure that out? Way to screw with other people’s lives!</p>
<p>I do not want Jasmine and Crosby to get back together.</p>
<p>I think Drew’s response was perfectly age appropriate. His mother is dating a much-younger teacher at his HS, he walks in on them having sex and finds what he thinks is a pregnancy test in her bathroom. That’s a lot to expect a 16yo to process maturely.</p>
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<p>Above quote is from this review/recap ([?Tough</a> Love? | Parenthood | TV Club | TV | The A.V. Club](<a href=“http://www.avclub.com/articles/tough-love,69236/]?Tough”>Parenthood: “Tough Love”)). Interesting to think about. The soul of the show is this family.</p>
<p>Sarah’s storyline is just reminding me of Lauren Graham’s character in Gilmore Girls and her relationship with Max. Take out the baby and it is there. But Max proposed and I am just wondering when Mark will do it. I don’t even know if he will.</p>
<p>I “get” the part about Max hating being called stupid or bad at basketball. I felt his parents, who so want to protect him, put him in a really bad spot, where he was not going to be successful. Why would they do that to their son? I liked the emerging friendship. </p>
<p>But the part that really annoys me is how Max angily and constantly says, “I’ve got Asperger’s!!!” I so dislike that at some many levels. First, Aspie kids don’t blurt that out. Most kids who have Asperger’s are inward-thinking and don’t naturally want to share something personal about themselves. Then, kids should never use their diagnosis as an excuse. (I have that with my ADHD students, but it’s still not right.) And finally, with the changing diagnosis, Max would never qualify as autistic and Asperger’s is so overused. </p>
<p>He just comes across as an angry, spoiled kid. Just because he has the label of Asperger’s doesn’t make his character appealing at all. And parenting??? If anything, his parents should stop focusing on “but Max has rights!” and instead try to help their kid learn to develop some empathy, because that’s a quality that is not intuitive.</p>
<p>limabeans, I admit that I stopped watching in the first season when the parents were acting like the Aspergers diagnosis was the end of the world.</p>
<p>OK, please tell me the scene with Zoe in the nursery is just a fake-out and she really isn’t going to keep the baby! Hoping that the fact that they didn’t show any scenes of them in the previews means that it all turns out okay.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>There was a scene at the very end of the previews with Zoe and Julia. I wanted to know where all those intrusive Bravermans were when Julia and her husband were about to bring their baby home. Not even the grandmother could show up? This was not an ordinary homegoing and there was the potential for some difficult moments and someone should have been on hand to take the daughter away for the parents to have some time. Instead, Sarah is off obsessing about New York which is the stupidest idea she’s had yet. If she wanted to talk to her sister-in-law she could have phoned her or gone to her house instead of marching into her office. I also find Jason Ritter annoying as the boyfriend. I can’t quite figure out why. Also, how nice for Crosby and Jasmine now that she has figured things out at the expense of devastating a really good man. It feels kind of icky. And Crosby didn’t stop for a nanosecond to consider the feelings of the girl he is sleeping with.</p>