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Hello, Desiree:

1. Yes, Gabriel and I are having fun at your expense. If you hadn't created a situation whereby he's afraid to be open and honest with you then you might have a better idea about what he thinks. That's nobody's fault but your own because you would rather try to raise your children the way you were raised (perpetuating the way of life) than to be intelligent and rational, and to learn about child psychology so that you could actually be a good parent.

2. Heating something up in the microwave is NOT "cooking"; heating up pre-cooked food on the stove is NOT "cooking"; Hamburger Helper is not cooking. The "cooking" Gabriel has been learning and doing up here involves selecting and preparing combinations of raw ingredients and actually mixing then cooking them in a pot or pan on the stove, to make up with interesting and different ways to make things. It involves try different combinations and using previous experiences to find combinations that you like. It involves such things as actually slicing, dicing, and mixing those raw ingredients in a pan and sauteing them together. It involves spending time with Gabriel to show him better ways to handle the cooking utensils and how high to set the heat on the stove to achieve the desired results. It involves letting him decide how much of a given ingredient to use so that the end result is HIS creation. So, I'm sorry, but I would disagree with your belief that he has "learned to cook anything while he was there (with you)".

3. The fact that Gabriel never contacted you even one time until the RCMP stopped by the apartment and suggested he should call you to let you know he's okay should be a pretty clear indication to you how much he "loves" you and what he really thinks about you. Over the past 2 and a half years, he's not gone that long without speaking with me. You can go ahead and claim that I'm filling his head with stories of you being a monster - but any such stories are entirely true and supported with physical evidence (which I've provided to you, previously). If what I tell him is true then how can it be bad? Are you saying that the truth is bad? Informing someone of the truth is not manipulation. If I tell him that you're a hideous, disgusting, revolting, monster then I would emphasize that that is my opinion and I would provide the specific reasons I believe that - reasons which would be specific things you've done. If I teach him that eating with his elbows on the table is nasty because it's what trashy people do, then he looks down on you and Sage because you do do it then it's only because he doesn't want to be associated with being white trash. I don't tell him not to do it - I just point out that it makes him look trashy, unrefined, undignified. If he returns to Arizona and looks down on you and Sage because you eat like savages then I suppose it's my fault for teaching him to be a better person and rise above the riff-raff. Perhaps if you (and the family you're so insistent on exposing Gabriel to) were not so trashy then he wouldn't look down on you (and them) so much.

4. Yes, I have consistently taught Gabriel that schools like the University of Phoenix are a joke and a degree from them is meaningless. Because they are! I think you're finally realizing that now, right? He is too intelligent to have any respect for a person who has wasted 4 years pursuing a degree from such a school.

5. I have consistently urged Gabriel that he should be honest with you about what he thinks of you and about what he wants with respect to you. He has consistently responded that if he does then he'll have to put up with you getting angry and probably punishing him for it. I have told him that as long as he's honest with you and presents himself respectfully then you would have no reason to be angry and to punish him - how can you be angry with someone for not respecting you due to the many selfish and harmful things you've done? I have told him that, based on my experience with my mother (with whom you are essentially identical), that if he told you he just doesn't respect you, that he'll never respect you, that he doesn't love you, that he only goes along with you because he's afraid of getting in trouble, then you would respond by discarding him. You would rationalize your actions by saying he's an ungrateful child and I've filled his head with lies about you.

6. I have taught (and continue to teach) Gabriel as much as I can about how to identify white trashy people. So that he can know that he is better than them and he can avoid them and protect himself from them. They are a deplorable and disgusting category of people who cannot be trusted, will stab you in the back for no apparent reason, will try to keep you at their (low) level (they never like to see their own rise above them). They make terrible life decisions without any consideration of the consequences or how their actions affect others. They think small. They're irrational. Their too ignorant and emotional to be objective and that results in them being unable to improve themselves ... Oh, wait, I've just described you and most of your family. Sorry, sometimes reality hurts. But teaching Gabriel that white trash people are bad and he should stay away from them and always strive to be above that is not filling his head with lies. It's just good parenting. Why would any decent parent want to subject their children to that way of life? It's hideous. I know - it's where I came from. It's where all of my siblings still are. But remember: being white trash is choice - it's not beyond your control to be a better person; you're happy with who you are. That's fine for you, but I think Gabriel realizes it's a shitty existence and he expects more from life.