And what I see, is maybe the kid is afraid of any change, not just a houseboat. He might crave stability to the point of any change would freak him out. He might just need reassurance that step-Dad's relationship with him will still be good, or at least okay.

You might have to feel him out. Prod him to give you the real reasons, even if he can't form them properly. It might even be some weird reason that you can totally address.

Maybe get him to help on the project, get ideas on how he would do things. Personally, I think boat restoration is a huge pain, but somehow even I found it rewarding.

Having lived on a boat for a good part of the last few years, I do see some sacrifices. But not as many as you'd think, except for space and the inability to store alot of crap that you don't need anyway.

I know people that are cruising the world with their children (including toddlers), I hardly see it as abuse.

You can live in a houseboat, an apartment on the 25th floor in downtown Manhattan, a secluded ranch in Montana, a farmhouse in Kansas, a gated community in Vegas, and there would be somebody that would cry abuse...that it would not be the ideal location for the "children".

As far as how kids react. You can never know. It depends on the kid.

I was a military brat, it left me as someone that didn't need (or even understand) roots. It left one sister ready to tie down to anything that even resembled security, and the other sibling somewhere in between. A change made for any of us, might have been detrimental to the others. Who knows?

Find out the kids issues and go from there, don't let people project their fears onto you.

As an aside, kids will tease regardless, it doesn't matter if it's a "boat" kid, an apartment kid, plumber's kid, Mom's fat, sister's retarded or a single dad's kid. You can't cater to that BS.

I seem to tbe the only one that thinks living on a houseboat isn't the end of the world and shouldn't be treated that way.

First, I think some people have no idea that it's not roughing it to live on a houseboat. Houseboats come in all shapes and sizes. In San Diego and near San Pedro, CA I've seen some beautiful ones. Really cool places to live in some ideal locations, where real estate would be impossible to buy for most people in the same location. Does anyone remember the movie "Sleepless in Seattle"? That was a houseboat Tom Hanks lived in with his son. Lake Union has an area of stunning houseboats.

For those that really think it's unsafe, every place has it's drawbacks. Do you have a house with a pool? Do you have a house near the water, let alone on the beach? Do you have a house with a second story, or worse do you live on the 4th floor and have a patio? Is there a busy street you toddler could wonder off onto?

Also, the LW by no means implies that he is going to pull the 16 year old away from his life. The kids involved in a ton of things (according to the LW) after school. That's not going to change...the LW didn't say that he's going to uproot and live in a swamp in Arkansas and homeschool for Godsakes.

The kid may just want to conform, the kid may not like change, the kid may just want to rebel against anything Dad wants him to do. All of these should be handled differently by the Dad and his son. We're projecting what's bothering him about the move, because we don't know.

in the wolrd today there was the bailout of the speculative Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae investments. For years they paid out higher rates for investment because they were NOT government guaranteed.

More privatization of profit, socialization of risk. Wall street and the banks just got bailed out again. Certain funds will pay out millions on betting that this would happen.

In the meantime I just saw an older man being interviewed about his life savings being wiped out at IndyMac, the bank told him to distribute his life savings to different accounts so it would be insured. They lied and now at his age he'll have $100,000 left. He thought he had done everything right.

My tax dollars can guarantee that companies like PIMCO can pay out millions and keep their millions. God forbid we help the poor though, that would be a waste of taxpayer dollars...

How did American oil companies sacrifice or hurt during the Iraq war?

So in your world, it's okay for enlisted guys to die so that Exxon Mobil gets a good deal and can reward their CEO with another $500,000,000 bonus.

Good lord, no.

If someone has time to get all worked up over this, a comedian's only slightly offensive joke about his own family, they have way too much time on their hands and obviously have not been effected by the downturn in the economy, a loved one overseas, or any money in IndyMac.

Leave the outrage over this kind of thing to the good folks over on the RW side of the aisle, you know the ones, the kind of people that wanted the Austin Powers doll removed form shelves because it says "horny".

I'd say people shouldn't clutch their pearls over this, but thinking about it, that is kind of sexist even if it is descriptive. (g)