Quote Originally Posted by skippy11 View Post
My love of golf is due to a relationship such as this. the thing he needs the most it sounds like is a trusted friend. I would not start with a load of reward/restrictions situations, that will come later after he has discovered that the pastimes are worth it and something to be missed if he can not participate. Gives him something to fight for.

Also, expect to have "talk"time and be the backstop for when him and mom get into it at some point, if the friendship develops it will happen. Allot of what I am today I owe to long walks on the fairways in the fading light listening and learning.

Thanks Mike!

Rick
Very much along our lines of thinking here Mike. We are going to take it slow and easy, see what he likes and make certain there is respect for all involved, even dad. I think we are best to leave the reward and punishment end up to mom. Gives her a much more active role, more power and keeps us from looking like the bad guys too if you know what I mean.

Liability wise we should be okay. The only potential wild card there is the dad but since we got rid of his buddy on the bench he has more law enforcement enemies than friends in our county. Nighthawk says he will pick up additional insurance on his boat if needed. He has to check his policy on that. If we do go out of the area on a camping trip and mom cannot accompany us we will have her give us written permission to take the lad along. Actually I believe that in Pennsylvania a verbal agreement/instructions are just as binding as a written, signed document.

I appreciate all of the advice and all of us are taking it to heart. This means a lot to us folks. We are going to take it slow and easy but we will make it work.