With hindsight I'd say the Devil child is one who is constantly pushing the bounds and doesn't seem to want to go along with the crowd or the class rules, etc at the time. In the lad's case we'd always get shool reports like- J could be an A student if only he'd apply himself in class. Blow me down if he doesn't get glowing report cards in Yr7 and Yr12 only and later he confides with me that you only have to ace Yr7 and Yr12 report cards to get on dad, while school teacher mum rolls her eyes and shakes her head thinking about the poor teachers in between. Son's life view was the rest of the time was for cricket, footy, BMX jumping (including car and tram surfing with the mates), the beach and wave surfing, etc. We even get to go to Gummint House presentation and afternoon tea with the geeks when he gets a perfect 20 in Yr 12 for Cad and Graphics because he likes it and it's a breeze for him technically with little effort.
You need to be careful pre-judging them too as I did with J and pocket money. Give him money and it was down the shops like a flash and gone and he'd be borrowing off younger sister and you think he'll be exactly like your bil without a cracker to his name and maxed out credit cards. At 15 he gets a fast food job through a mate cooking out the back and next thing he's working nights and weekends whenever there's a spare slot and he's saving money for a car because I've already told him I won't be buying him one like other parents, especially while he's at school. Anyway you can't afford to run one at school son. Yeah, well he showed me cooking chook all hours and 2am starts with a mate preparing the local golf greens, while mum was always fretting about those school reports and wanting to leave school.
He's just bought his second unit to organise trades to do up and sell on and the bank falls over themselves to lend him any extra with over $200k in his kick while most of his peers get mum and dad to stump up deposits so they don't have to pay mortgage insurance. He's noticed that part alright, while he's been around the world a few times, owns everything outright and the brand new jetski is handy for catching the big waves and he doesn't want for much I can tell you. No shortage of young ladies wanting a slice of the wild child but the marine biologist is the first one to move in with him and I suspect she's working on the life project just fine now. Scheming with the missus how to knock the rough diamond into shape for life and it's often the wild ones that settle down for life. I have this strange feeling of deja vu for some inexplicable reason.
