Because we moved town so close to the end of his final year of compulsory schooling, our elder son had to squat with a family in the previous town during the week until the end of the school year.

They have two sons of their own, the younger one of which is two years older than our eldest and another two years older than that.

When I went to fetch him for the last time, the wife clung to him and said, "It's been so wonderful to have a teenager in the house who TALKS... and has an opinion about politics!" Apparently, he used to sit with her and watch the news and stuff and the two of them would yell at the screen together. He regularly entered into animated conversation with her on any and every subject. It seems her own sons are of the more usual grunting variety.

I never thought of my son's motor mouth (wonder where he got it from;o)) as being a blessing...