I’ve always wanted my son to become a strong, responsible man. A determined young guy, able to consider the world from a critical point of view. My wife –Lily- and I have the same values –that’s why we got married in the first place. Not because I was in love with her –let’s be honest, she isn’t that attractive, but because I immediately felt that she would be a great mother for her children. The first decade of Paul’s life did go as planned: his education, which we had strictly prepared in advance, seemed to work out. But it all changed when Paul went to middle school. We noticed that he got on with the wrong people, but we didn’t have any evidence that could confirm our suspicion. We could never get a word out of him; he was as silent as the grave. We felt that we had to take measures –and that’s what we did. We couldn’t accuse our son of being a criminal, so we hired a spy who promised to keep an eye on Paul during one week. He was persecuted everywhere at any time, from the moment he set off for school to when he got home again. But what the spy told us at the end of week was worse than we’d expected. It was a disaster. I remembered how my wife turned pale while hearing that Paul secretly snatched candy from the ‘Kruidvat’ shop. “The beginning of a life full of misery and criminality”, she said desperately. My wife and I decided to take precautions: by the next week, Paul didn’t go to school anymore. We taught him ourselves. That seemed to work out as well, regardless of the fact that he showed some resistance in the beginning because we had taken him away from, what he called his ‘social’ life. As the months passed by, Paul’s indignity seemed to be fading away, which was a huge relief for Lily and I. Finally, we could breathe again. Still we were a bit anxious of what could happen once our son turned eighteen. Then he’d be grown-up and independent, no longer abiding under his parents’ protecting wings. We knew that he would claim his freedom and that we couldn’t do anything but watch him go away. And that’s exactly what happened last month. Paul has left his parental house forever.

-Mr. Edwards-