CousinAmy

I noticed that Jen speaks to the people building her simulation center the same say she speaks to the children: clearly, pleasantly and rationally. She is very, very organized, and very good at expressing herself. This is just the way she is: not histrionic or dramatic. I don't see the family having factions or rivalries, because they are a tight family unit. Jen provides the practicality, Bill supplies the whimsy. The kids supply the comedy and drama. It definitely works for them.

I'm not going to try to diagnose Will's learning ability or dis-ability from one picture on the Internet. But in the photo, he had written not on a flat piece of paper, but on a paper on the wall. It's not easy for an adult to write legibly, let alone a child. Note that he spelled every word correctly, except for one - "doges." And he remembered to dot his i's. I've seen much, much worse in 3rd graders. I'd be interested to see if he has trouble with math, or if it's just language arts. Some kids are better in one, and some in others. I have always been impressed with his curiosity, his interest in how things work, and his endless questions, "why?" I think that's a far more important measure of his abilities than his handwriting and spelling.

I think I'm having buyer's remorse - for Jen. The last place I'd want to own a house is on the beach - I'm just picturing sand everywhere, inside and out. You'd have it in every corner of every room, in your hair, in your bed... She has that nice pool, but still really wants a house on the beach. So, how far is the beach - any beach - from their home? Maybe she should have held out for that coastal farmhouse.

Doesn't the house have 6 bedrooms? I assumed that the nanny/housekeeper/cook/laundress/scullery maid would just have the smallest bedroom by the back stairs. (My aunt lived in a 100-year-old house in Connecticut that had a small maid's room by the back stairs that led to the kitchen. It's so Gothic.) Where is this space that Kate and her family will occupy? I really think that they will need more than one "helper" - keeping up that large house is a big job; wrangling the children is a different job, and I can't see that they can be performed at the same time. Plus, there's a lot of outside work that needs to be done: cleaning the pool, keeping up the "grounds" such as they are. Maybe they'll have a cleaning service; pool maintenance service; lawn service - I once knew an upper-middle-class family that had a plant-watering service provider (who I think was also their dog-walking service provider). The problems of the rich!

I've had a car or two shipped to me in New York from Florida, and it was convenient and not that expensive. I'm sure they could have flown quite easily and have cars sent, but then they would have missed out on The Great Road Trip, which seems to be the title to the next episode (or something along those lines). Someone probably figured that having them use up time by having road trip episodes would tide them over during the boring renovation months. (The renovation will be interesting in small bits but most of it won't make such great TV.) I doubt Bill and Jen are fooled about Will's achievements in comparison to Zoey's. Jen at least knows that there is a world of difference between the two from their ages, sexes, backgrounds, medical conditions, etc. They can probably both read report cards! And Jen probably knows more about child development than she lets on. I am certain she isn't just shrugging her shoulders to say, as long as he's happy we can't expect any more from him. Remember he's curious about how things work, and from a young age always asked "why." He isn't placid and bored, but is interested in things happening around him and a creative thinker. Those are better indications of how far he can go than some imaginary baselines he is supposedly stuck on.

Wasn't Zoey's adoption process started before Will's? But his came through faster. I think they were expecting to get her at a younger age, but things got switched. I can't remember if you have said how old SGirl is. Do you mind saying? I will understand if you don't want to.

I don't know if it was ever expressed at the time they started to look into adoption, but perhaps their short-statured condition would have been enough for adoption agencies to turn them away? And I know one of the advantages to Will and Zoey being adopted by a well-to-do couple was that their medical needs would be taken care of. They won't realize this for a long time, and has been said in other episode threads, they may resent being taken away from their birth countries, but objectively it's true.

I never had a backpack when I went to school in the 1950s and 1960s, but I did have schoolbags. Sabrina's red plaid schoolbag was perfect. And when the teens went into the schoolyard to have their lunch, Sabrina had an "Archie's" thermos. This girl's style is somehow flexible in time, while her worldly friends are living in the current year. I'm really more interested in these styling choices than the horror, which has never been my favorite genre, but it's nice to see Kiernan carry her own show.

What kind of entertaining would a doctor with an advanced degree and high position in a hospital have to do? Would you ask this about a male doctor?

That certainly looks coastal (I can see the ocean out the window) but doesn't look like a farmhouse at all. I think of farmhouses as practical and robust - not bleached white wood and upholstery! My dream is to have a farmhouse kitchen with a green Hoosier cabinet with shelves for my vintage dishes and pots and pans; a deep sink and a rustic table and chairs. I was glad we got to see the empty house with no furniture - it's huge! I'm still wondering how they will keep track of those fast-moving kids. Maybe by tracking devices? Three floors worth of hiding places.

They said from the beginning that they were going to keep the kids' heritages very present in their lives - incorporating some of the words, teaching them about their birth culture. So it's not a surprise to the children that they were born somewhere very far away. Think of it as sort of an open adoption, where there are no secrets in the family. Yes, they have to take the chance that the children will resent them from uprooting them as babies, but on the other hand it may deepen their appreciation for their adoptive family. When they are old enough, they can make decisions for themselves. I have very clear memories from 1st grade, when I was 6 (and plenty of memories from before that, though some of them have been clouded by time). I have no doubt that a trip taken at ages 7 or 8 will be remembered for years afterwards.

I think this is just a different style of parenting. When my Mom wanted us to move to a bigger, newer house, she used to go looking when my Dad was at work and we were in school, but on the weekends we would go as a family to look at the homes she liked. I was 6 and my brother was 8. They certainly wouldn't have left us home alone! I even remember going to the Dime Savings Bank in Brooklyn (cobblestone streets!) on January 11, 1956 when they signed the final papers. We went everywhere as a family. Sometimes we might have said or done something wrong and we would get "the look" but it didn't stop our family outings to banks, model homes or even just the supermarket. Different strokes for different folks!

I've read that the reason some chain restaurants are so successful is because children are allowed to be loud! Family-friendly, I guess. Yes, children are taught to say "please and thank you" beginning in preschool, if not at home. The Klein kids are at the age where it should be automatic, although sometimes older kids and adults will slack off. Will is often downright rude, especially to Jen. That should be corrected when and where it happens. I guess his parents don't want to seem strict or "mean" on TV.

It doesn't matter how old Will is or if he is learning challenged; he will get an enormous benefit to be - as someone else out it - being in the majority, not minority all the time. His extended family is wonderful, warm and welcoming, but they look different from him, and I'm sure he's noticed that. He has a good recall of past experiences from the past few years, surely this will add another layer to his understanding of his place in the world. The Arnolds seems to be doing pretty well financially - so what if they have a new home and can afford to travel? They are doing what they think is best for the children. In the long term, maybe it will turn out that they did it all wrong, but I believe their intentions are well-meaning.

I'm always confused by the timeline on this show. When were these episodes filmed? (Just because they were hunting for Easter eggs doesn't mean it was really Easter!) They bought that house in 2017, so why did it take them till June 2018 to move in? And does this mean we won't get to see them living in the house this "season"? I've been obsessed with that house since I saw the pictures last year. The approach to the front door is up a long staircase, which means that they will most likely pull into the garage(s) and take the elevator up. But we're told that since there's a risk of flooding, the ground floor is almost all garage space - and, the elevator! So it's OK if the garages flood, but then they don't have access to the elevator either. I have some arthritis in my knees, so I appreciate the idea of an elevator, but I prefer my one-level home anyway. But the area of those floors must be massive - so there's a lot of walking anyway, just not up and down. It's a lot of house. How do they expect to keep track of the children in so much space - both kids like to run, like to hide, and can be willful and defiant, especially Will to Jen. I'm sure there will be at least one full-time "unseen" housekeeper, but will they need a wrangler for each child? Now please excuse me because I need to make sure I have bagels, coffee, cream, cream cheese and lox for my breakfast tomorrow in my bedroom/dressing room/en suite - and after I have breakfast there, I have to wash the dishes, clear the table, make a note of what I need upstairs before I have to go downstairs to the kitchen to make breakfast for the rest of the family. Whew! I'm exhausted.

If she was spending alone time with them, it wouldn't necessarily be in front of a camera. What we are watching is a television show, not real life. Their real lives aren't televised.

We have seen Jen give speeches and talk to colleagues. She never has that nervous giggle. It's only related to hearth and home.

What, I wonder, is a "coastal house"? I guess it's a house near the seashore, but Jen also mentioned "farmhouse coastal" which is a style I've never even contemplated. Maybe a wood-frame aqua-painted house with a big sea-foam green barn in back? Our parents took us everywhere when my brother and I were that age, including to brand-new model homes and of course their friends' and relatives' houses. In the 1950s that was pretty normal. Of course my mom left us to play in the parking lot behind her favorite store while she shopped, so maybe that's not the best example of parenting.

Wasn't it at the cemetery? Isn't that where you bury someone?

That wasn't the New York Times obit. It was merely a paid death notice. If he merits an obituary, there is a byline, as if it's a newspaper article.

Watching Ana Navarro evolve has been a beautiful thing. I also have a real life friend who has done a 180 in the last two years. It gives me hope that there are indeed thoughtful, intelligent people who are capable of listening to reason. I was annoyed, though, when JP kept saying it was phony scandal that has produced nothing and no one brought up Flynn's guilty plea, plus Papdapolous, etc. In fact there is so much evidence I could write a book. But someone should have been able to point out the incontrovertible facts.

If you grew up in my generation, right after WW2, or my parents' generation, who were young adults during the War, you remember him as a hero and just as responsible for winning the War as FDR. Of course we all know now that they were much more complex characters than we were led to believe, but their heroic reputations resulted from those War and post-War years.

I can see where someone might want to live in the middle of Montana with lots of dogs. Dogs are awesome and you can snuggle with them if you get cold. But why would you need lots of guns? You might need a rifle to shoot any critters who get too close to the house (but if you have lots of dogs, do you really need the gun?). And an AK-47 to kill some large critter for your dinner. But I would never link the two - dogs and guns - in the same sentence. I heard someone start to say "dogs and guns?" but then the conversation moved on.

I don't much like storylines that start approaching my adult life. When Mad Men reached 1967, the year I graduated high school, I could remember what I was doing every day, and it took away the mythic quality that the show had in the beginning. Young Elizabeth's life was in the misty past - her childhood crush on her handsome flawed Prince- but to see her tangle with Harold Wilson or Margaret Thatcher over some mundane political issue is a whole different show. "Ripped from the headlines" or not.

I think Princess Anne is the hardest-working woman not in show business! She has a very busy schedule - even if most are appearances at charitable events. Margaret could have found plenty to do if she wanted - but I doubt she wanted to "work." The glamorous life Tony introduced her to was too enticing.