<p>I was so annoyed with Sarah for violating the unspoken adult code- when another parent or adult gives you info about your kid, don’t throw them under the bus by mentioning their name, use the info to come up with a way to talk to your kid. I’ve been burned on that before, though it is definitely worse if it involves another parent, that causes issues for your kid at school!</p>
<p>It also made me cringe when Drew came to Sarah’s door, she has NO discretion, with whom will she be talking up this disaster? Can she even keep his private things private? </p>
<p>Family has lived with us, so I could quite relate to Crosby’s dilemma. But, being closer to her age, I could also relate to Mom’s issues with picking a job. But why did they call to share the good news about a job and then not take it?</p>
<p>Yeah, Sydney is a brat, but that entire situation is bizarre, there should be help. Every “adopt a child” report I read seems to always say the adopted kid should be the youngest in the house, why did they bring in an older kid & why no guidance on how to deal with these issues?</p>
<p>I agree with you somemom about how Sarah actually told Drew that it was from Mark that she heard he was upset. How in the world would Drew ever feel comfortable going to Mark with a problem now?</p>
<p>I am a bit confused about why Drew was knocking on Sarah’s front door. Doesn’t they live in the same place?</p>
<p>It’s like the college thing, the writers just toss out all these big critical good & bad issues, but don’t seem to consistently put in the time to get it right. According to many posters they were solid on much of the cancer fight (except the Haddie part), but most of the other issues that arise are not well-researched.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t it be a better show if they had twice as many episodes in a season and had no more stories than now so that each one was done better and more deeply addressed?</p>
<p>I thought they were doing a good job with the cancer storyline, but then Kristina had one round, found it so debilitating she needed pot, lost her hair much later, and as near as I can tell hasn’t had any more chemo. It’s not just a one shot thing. Now she’s bald but as chipper as can be. She’d be having chemo every other week in real life.</p>
<p>I did think that Drew and Amy’s pregnancy story rang true to some kids. As much as I hated that they weren’t involving any trusted adults in their lives, I got that Amy was terrified of loosing life as she knew it – that life where she’s daddy’s little girl. So when she told Drew her life would be over, it wasn’t so much the closing in of future options, but the ending of past relationships she was grieving.</p>
<p>I hate, hate that Sarah thought Mark was making up excuses to see her. And I thought he’d pick up on that and realize once again how shallow and self-centered she is. Maybe later.</p>
<p>I too heard the heterocentrism echoing in the room in the chat with Max.</p>
<p>And I agree that it is totally unbelievable that there is no ongoing psycho/social support for Victor and the rest of the family. For all their formal chats, that family doesn’t communicate very well at all.</p>
<p>I actually give the show a lot of credit for presenting abortion as the most viable option (and unless the writers are playing tricks, it appears that Amy went through with it). It seems to me that most other programs cop out on that issue – the character considers the abortion, but changes her mind at the last minute and goes through with the pregnancy instead. But the impact that choice would have on the life of a college-bound 17 year old is profound – so it definitely makes sense (and is very true to life) that Amy would see abortion as the only realistic option for her … especially given her reluctance to confide in her her parents. </p>
<p>As to the other story line, I agree that Sydney is a total brat but I think that she is reacting normally to the upheaval in her family life. There is no sense at all that either Sydney nor Victor have ever been asked their opinion or given any sort of sense of input into the whole adoption scenario. No wonder they both are upset – neither one of them has been given any say in the matter. I think that her brattiness is far more realistic than the portrayal of Max, who often seems to be presented as a caricature of Asperger’s rather than a real person with a reason behind his behaviors and responses. </p>
<p>I also found some of the sex-talk with Max unrealistic simply because I would have expected him to have been exposed to most of the basic facts much earlier. He was portrayed as if he had the sophistication of an 8 year old rather than a young adolescent.</p>
<p>calmom, I also considered that they would do an abortion switcheroo later in the season (though they only have two episodes left so they better hurry). In fact, I have the scenario all set – she’d have the baby and Sarah and Mark would raise it as they were considering having a baby anyway. That would make me so angry. I think if she changed her mind Drew would have known because she would have emerged from the room much earlier and presumably they were there for a while because her dad seemed to be home from work when they got back to her house.</p>
<p>I have a theory about Max and the sex talk but hesitate to put it out her because I don’t want to be misconstrued. Still, we found that scene hilarious. Cristina was trying to reign it all in, but Zeke was having total fun with it and Adam was amused by the whole thing. We were laughing so hard I’m sure we missed a lot of it.</p>
<p>I think you all are a really tough audience! I think what’s good about Parenthood is that it does confront difficult issues.</p>
<p>As someone who is pro-life, I was disappointed in Amy’s decision. Yet, I admit that it was true to life. The decision Amy made is the decision you would expect Amy to make. I’m not sure though she actually had the procedure, but that might just be my ignorance. My impression was that she would look “sick” after it. I don’t mean that anyone could tell she had had an abortion; I just mean she’d be a bit under the weather and not look totally fine that quickly. </p>
<p>While I don’t like Sarah’s character that much, I don’t think she initially thought that Mark contacting her was about her and not Drew. She did TRY to talk to Drew. She did ask him if he would tell her if anything was wrong. Drew was a pretty convincing liar at that point. The whole “Mark just wanted to see you; Drew was an excuse” idea came from Hank and he was pretty convincing about it too. When Sarah was convinced by Drew that nothing other than college app fear was going on, she bought Hank’s viewpoint and part of the reason for that is that’s what Hank really thought. </p>
<p>And, as someone who DOES have indirect experience with adoption, the story line is VERY believable. The social workers have a little boy who has finally been released for adoption. They want to end Victor’s cycle of living in foster families. How many families do you think are lined up to adopt 8 or so year old Hispanic males who have been in contact with their bio mom and whose bio mom is in prison? Joel and Julia look like the perfect couple. You really think that the social agency is going to say “You have a younger bio child and therefore we won’t let you adopt this one?” There are also some other definite pluses here–Julia is unlikely to be able to have more bio kids herself–a plus for many adoption agencies. The bio child is a different sex than the adopted child–another plus in the opinion of many. But most importantly, it is extremely likely that Joel and Julia are the best option Victor is ever likely to have. I cannot imagine a social worker stopping Joel and Julia from taking Victor in. And if any of you think that an army of social workers makes daily visits in this kind of situation, well…talk to a social worker who works for a foster care agency. With the number of kids each case worker follows, that kind of support just doesn’t exist. (One of my cousins adopted sisters who were then 6 and 10 when their mom was sent to prison. Tough doesn’t begin to describe it.)</p>
<p>jonri, I agree with you about the adoption storyline. Placing an older Hispanic male child who’s been in the foster system for years is difficult, and I took the “you seem to be doing everything right” from the case worker as blowing smoke up their skirts, to make them feel better so that they wouldn’t be so discourage as to give up. The part of that storyline that feels most unbelievable is that Julia would not have sought out on her own counseling for the family if none was offered by the agency. She has a need for things to be perfect and trying to make things as good as possible, IMO, would mean proactively arranging for some kind of counseling. Julia has had so much recent turmoil in her life – losing her job, fear of losing her identity – that I could see how she would be exasperated and want to give up. But, again, I think before the work stuff hit the fan that she would have taken charge and put things in place to ease the transition for Sydney and everyone.</p>
<p>I don’t have firsthand experience with abortion, but I assume there would be some recovery time at the clinic and that’s why I think Drew would know that she hadn’t gone through with it. The wouldn’t have let her sit back there for hours, IMO.</p>
<p>I agree completely with jonri AND calmom about the abortion story. It was true to Amy’s character that she wouldn’t consider anything but an abortion a viable option. (And true to Drew’s character that he would, and he would be devastated by Amy’s rejection of him.) </p>
<p>Something my wife talks about all the time is how no one ever stands up and says, I chose to have an abortion. In popular culture, on TV, girls agonize about it, then choose not to, or get rescued by a deus ex machina miscarriage. I think it was realistic and beneficial to see a character like Amy behave the way she would, sitting patiently through the “options” speeches with a mind firmly made up, and looking for help paying for the procedure, not help raising the child. You can agree or not that she ought to have that choice, legally, but that’s what it looks like, at least for the women of my generation (post-Roe) and for our daughters.</p>
<p>I never even thought about maybe she DIDN’T have the abortion. I think she did, and if she didn’t I think Drew knows. I feel like the fact that she did have the abortion is what is tearing him apart.</p>
<p>Oh, I did really like the scene where the Dad was sweet and chatty, completely oblivious to the kids angst, that is so real life, we try to be supportive, try to be there when needed, but cannot read minds. Normal teenage angst vs. serious teenage angst may be difficult to discern!</p>
<p>It was…and then she went back for the abortion. At the first visit, they told Amy and Drew Amy had about a week to make the decision. Amy went back a day later and had the abortion.</p>
<p>When Drew and Amy were in the car, Drew said something like, “You don’t have to make a decision now; they said you have a week to decide.” This implied that she’s almost three months along. Did anyone besides me wonder if the baby was actually Drew’s? Since they were broken up and only recently reconciled, could this possibly have been the U of Cal-Berkeley boyfriend’s baby?</p>
<p>Jc, I thought about that when she first said that she was pregnant, but my ds pointed out that she broke up with the college guy soon after school started so that would be about four months. He convinced me that the math wasn’t right.</p>
<p>I thought the puberty plot was silly since it’s obvious to anyone whose been watching for a while that Max has been going through puberty for some time. His voice started changing about two seasons ago and I’ve always found it odd that they didn’t just age Max to match the actor’s obvious growth spurt. I think the reason Max stopped Adam may well be the start of a gay storyline, but I think he’d be the wrong character to do it with. I just can’t picture Max being anywhere near ready to be in a relationship with someone of either gender for a long time to come.</p>
<p>I’d never thought about the possibility that the college guy could be the father, but it would make sense. Youdon’tsay, sorry, but I think your son is just plain wrong. Go back to post about 780 or so in this thread or look at the episode guide on NBC. </p>
<p>Remember how Amy and Drew get back together? Part of it involves Drew telling Amy about all the stuff in his life that is going wrong, including his Aunt Kristina’s cancer. The episode in which Kristina tells the family she has cancer aired on October 9. So, Drew and Amy started having sex again after that. Makes it 3 months AT MOST, not 4. </p>
<p>Of course, Parenthood isn’t a documentary, and it has played a bit fast and loose with time lines, but I think the time line here doesn’t preclude college boy as dad. </p>
<p>I think that it would make sense in terms of Amy’s reaction towards Drew. If she realized after she got back with Drew that she was pregnant and college boy, not Drew, was the father, she basically used Drew to help her get $ for the abortion. She might have felt really desperate about being pregnant and known that Drew would stand by her and help her, while college boy would not. I suspect college boy dumped her and she may not have wanted to ask him for help. If she actually had the baby, it’s more likely that the fact that Drew was not the father would come out. And, she may have honestly felt that telling Drew that she was pregnant by someone else would destroy him. </p>
<p>There’s also the very ugly possibility that Amy suspected she might be pregnant when she started having sex with Drew again and intentionally set him up. Maybe Amy has been thinking about what to do for quite some time and felt that if mom and dad thought Drew was baby daddy, they wouldn’t be as upset as if she got pregnant by some older guy who used her and dumped her. </p>
<p>I’m not saying that Drew was not the father…just that the “factoid” as to how far along Amy was may have been planted intentionally so when the plot twist is revealed, it will make sense.</p>
<p>It’s funny how I dissect these things as if the characters were real people!</p>
<p>Oh, of course, Drew could be the dad and Amy could have gotten pregnant the first time they got back together when sex “just happened.” I’m only saying that I don’t think we can rule out college boy as the father.</p>